impractical

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-bor.

Middle English in-

English im-

English practical

English impractical

From im- + practical.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹæktɪkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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Adjective

impractical (comparative more impractical, superlative most impractical)

1. Not practical; impracticable.

   Antonym: practical

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes:

     "I can't leave you here alone with these cutthroats, and you certainly can't venture into the jungle with me; yet someone must go in search of your father. He is more than apt to wandering off aimlessly, regardless of danger or direction, and Mr. Philander is only a trifle less impractical than he. ...

   • 2025 August 5, PlaguePJP, J Dune, “SCP-2003”, in SCP Wiki‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 July 2026:

     As traditional exploration of Centralia’s underground is exceedingly impractical and excessively dangerous, the Foundation has chosen to visually document the mine through remote observation.

Usage notes

• Said of people, theories, philosophies, etc.

Derived terms

• impracticality
• impractically
• impracticalness

Translations

not practical

• Czech: nepraktický m
• Dutch: onpraktisch (nl), onhandig (nl)
• Finnish: epäkäytännöllinen (fi), epätarkoituksenmukainen (fi)
• French: infaisable (fr)
• German: unpraktisch, unnütz (de), unbrauchbar (de), untauglich (de)
• Hindi: असहज (ashaj)
• Hungarian: használhatatlan (hu)
• Ladin: ncomper
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: upraktisk

  Nynorsk: upraktisk

• Plautdietsch: omstendich, ondeenlich
• Polish: niepraktyczny
• Portuguese: impraticável
• Russian: непракти́чный (ru) (nepraktíčnyj)
• Swedish: opraktisk (sv)