impolitic
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- impoliticly adverb
- impoliticness noun
Etymology
Origin of impolitic
Explanation
If you've ever put your foot in your mouth, you've probably said something impolitic. If you have made an impolitic statement, it was a politically unwise one. It is impolitic to fail to remember flowers for your beloved on Valentine's Day, or to fail to show up in class when your grade point average is hanging by a thread. Remember back in 1981 when then U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig informed the press after the assassination attempt on President Reagan that "I am in control here?" Well that was a classic impolitic statement. Poor guy resigned the following year.
Vocabulary lists containing impolitic
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
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Pride and Prejudice
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And Mr. Trump has plenty of company, including several presidents, in the department of salty language and impolitic statements.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026
That Ogles wasn’t entirely wrong, just a touch impolitic.
From Salon • Mar. 12, 2026
An opera disguised as an oratorio to get around the church’s ban on profane opera, the impolitic work about past and present is formed as the conflict between extravagance and sanctity.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2025
The main takeaways: Mullenweg may have had a point, but he raised it in a rather impolitic manner—at an event that WP Engine itself sponsored with cash, no less.
From Slate • Oct. 11, 2024
It was a ridiculous notion, as well as petty and impolitic, but he hadn’t been able to resist.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
