impede

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／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) Italian: impedire (it), ostacolare (it), intralciare (it) 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 (2001–2023), “impede”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• impeed

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Portuguese

Verb

impede

1. inflection of impedir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative