impede

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin impediō (“to shackle”), from pēs (“foot”) (compare pedestrian). First attested use as a verb was in William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpiːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːd

Verb

impede (third-person singular simple present impedes, present participle impeding, simple past and past participle impeded)

1. (transitive) To get in the way of; to hinder.

   impede someone's progress

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:hinder

Antonyms

• assist, help
• expede (obsolete)
• expedite

Related terms

• expede, expedite
• impediment

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped-‎ (0 c, 48 e)

Translations

to get in the way of; to hinder

• Bulgarian: преча (bg) (preča), спирам (bg) (spiram), задържам (bg) (zadǎržam)
• Catalan: impedir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 阻住 (zo² zyu⁶)

  Mandarin: 阻礙 (zh), 阻碍 (zh) (zǔ'ài)

• Czech: překážet (cs) impf, bránit (cs) impf, zabránit (cs) pf
• Dutch: belemmeren (nl), in de weg staan, beletten (nl), hinderen (nl)
• Finnish: haitata (fi)
• French: entraver (fr)
• Galician: impedir (gl)
• German: behindern (de), erschweren (de), hemmen (de), hindern (de), vereiteln (de)
• Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (marzjan)

• Greek:

  Ancient: κωλύω (kōlúō), ἐγκόπτω (enkóptō)

• Hungarian: gátol (hu)
• Latin: impediō
• Maori: rore, whakahōtaetae, taupare, kaiwaenga
• Norwegian: hindre (no)
• Persian: بازداشتن‎ (fa) (bâzdâštan)
• Portuguese: impedir (pt)
• Romanian: împiedica (ro)
• Russian: меша́ть (ru) (mešátʹ), препя́тствовать (ru) (prepjátstvovatʹ)
• Spanish: impedir (es)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “impede”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• impeed

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Portuguese

Verb

impede

1. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of impedir
2. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of impedir