impairment

English

Alternative forms

• empairment (rare)

Etymology

From Middle English empeirement, empeyrement, emparement, from Anglo-Norman empairement, emperement, enpeirement, from Old French ampirement, anpirement, enperement, equivalent to impair +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛəmənt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛɹmənt/

  • Audio (Austin, Texas):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpeːmənt/

Noun

impairment (countable and uncountable, plural impairments)

1. The result of being impaired.
2. A deterioration or weakening.
   • 2024, NTSB, Intersection Crash Between Passenger Car and Combination Vehicle, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, March 22, 2022:

     We determined that the car driver’s transportation of multiple teen passengers, limited driving experience, and likely impairment from effects of cannabis at the time of the crash adversely affected her judgment of the danger of entering the intersection in front of the approaching combination vehicle.

3. (medical model of disability) A disability or handicap.

   visual impairment

4. (social model of disability) A loss or absence of baseline human functioning that may lead to a disability.
5. An inefficient part or factor.
6. (accounting) A downward revaluation, a write-down.

Derived terms

• amnestic mild cognitive impairment
• nonimpairment
• preimpairment
• specific language impairment

Translations

result of being impaired

• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: kakundian

• Dutch: handicap (nl) m
• Finnish: häiriö (fi), vika (fi), vamma (fi)
• French: handicap (fr) m
• German: Verschlechterung (de) f, Schwächung (de) f, Behinderung (de) f, Beeinträchtigung (de) f, Minderung (de) f, Verminderung (de) f, Schädigung (de) f, Störung (de) f, Abschwächung (de) f, Schmälerung f, Einschränkung (de) f, Wertminderung (de) f
• Hungarian: romlás (hu), megromlás (hu), leromlás (hu), gyengülés (hu), károsodás (hu), rosszabbodás (hu), csökkenés (hu)
• Irish: lagú m
• Italian: indebolimento (it)
• Macedonian: нарушување (narušuvanje), оштетување (oštetuvanje), намалување (namaluvanje)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: svekkelse m

• Serbo-Croatian: oštećenje, hendikep (sh), onesposobljenost

accounting

• Danish: nedskrivning c
• Finnish: arvonalentuminen, arvonalennus
• Greek: απομείωση (el) f (apomeíosi)
• Swedish: nedskrivning (sv) c