obstacle

obstacle

English

Etymology

From Middle English obstacle, from Old French obstacle, from Latin obstāculum.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒbstəkəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑbstəkəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ob‧sta‧cle

Noun

obstacle (plural obstacles)

1. Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress, either physically or figuratively

   A big obstacle to understanding the manual was that it had been poorly translated from the Japanese.

Synonyms

• impediment
• hindrance
• hurdle
• barrier
• complication
• snag
• See also Thesaurus:hindrance

Translations

something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress

Albanian: pengesë (sq) f Arabic: عَقَبَة‎ m (ʿaqaba), حَاجِز‎ m (ḥājiz), عَائِق‎ m (ʿāʾiq) Armenian: խոչընդոտ (hy) (xočʿəndot), արգելք (hy) (argelkʿ) Aromanian: cheadicã f, ambodyiu m Azerbaijani: əngəl, sədd Belarusian: перашко́да f (pjeraškóda), перапо́на f (pjerapóna), перагаро́да f (pjeraharóda), паме́шка f (pamjéška) Bulgarian: препя́тствие (bg) n (prepjátstvie), прегра́да (bg) f (pregráda) Burmese: အဆီးအတား (my) (a.hci:a.ta:), အတားအဆီး (my) (a.ta:a.hci:) Buryat: һаад (haad) Catalan: obstacle (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 障礙／障碍 (zh) (zhàng'ài), 妨礙／妨碍 (zh) (fáng'ài) Cimbrian: briighe m Czech: překážka (cs) f Danish: forhindring c, hindring c Dutch: obstakel (nl) n, belemmering (nl) f, horde (nl) f Esperanto: obstaklo, malhelpo Estonian: takistus (et) Finnish: este (fi) French: obstacle (fr) m Galician: obstáculo m Georgian: დაბრკოლება (dabrḳoleba) German: Hindernis (de) n, Hürde (de) f Greek: εμπόδιο (el) n (empódio), πρόσκομμα (el) n (próskomma) Ancient: κώλυμα n (kṓluma) Hebrew: מִכְשׁוֹל‎ (he) m (mikhshól) Hindi: बाधा (hi) f (bādhā), रुकावट f (rukāvaṭ) Hungarian: akadály (hu) Icelandic: hindrun (is) f Ido: obstaklo (io) Irish: constaic f Italian: ostacolo (it) m, inciampo (it) m Japanese: 障害 (ja) (しょうがい, shōgai), 邪魔 (ja) (じゃま, jama), 障害物 (しょうがいぶつ, shōgaibutsu) Kalmyk: саад (saad) Kannada: ವಿಘ್ನ (kn) (vighna) Kazakh: тосқауыл (tosqauyl) Khmer: ទំនាល់ (km) (tumnŏəl) Kikuyu: mũhĩnga class 3 Korean: 장애(障礙) (ko) (jang'ae), 장애물(障礙物) (jang'aemul), 방해물(妨害物) (ko) (banghaemul), 장해(障害) (ko) (janghae) Kyrgyz: тоскоолдук (ky) (toskoolduk) Lao: ອຸປະສັກ (lo) (ʼu pa sak) Latin: obstantia f, obiectus m, ōbex m or f, mora (la), obstāculum n, impedīmentum n Latvian: šķērslis (lv) m Lithuanian: kliūtis m Macedonian: пречка f (prečka), препрека f (prepreka) Malay: halangan (ms), aral (ms) Maori: taunahua Mongolian: Cyrillic: саад (mn) (saad), бартаа (mn) (bartaa) Norwegian: Bokmål: hinder (no) n, hindring m or f, aber (no) n Nynorsk: hinder n, hindring f Occitan: obstacle (oc) m Ottoman Turkish: عائق‎ (â’ik) Persian: مانع‎ (fa) (mâne'), سد‎ (fa) (sadd) Plautdietsch: Jäajenstoss m, Hindaniss n Polish: przeszkoda (pl) f, trudność (pl) f, ambaras (pl) m Portuguese: obstáculo (pt) m, estorvo (pt) m, impedimento (pt) m, empecilho (pt) m, obstrução (pt) f, entrave (pt) m, óbice (pt) m, barreira (pt) f, tolhimento m, trambolho (pt) m, travanca f Quechua: hark'ay Romanian: obstacol (ro), piedică (ro) Russian: препя́тствие (ru) n (prepjátstvije), прегра́да (ru) f (pregráda), поме́ха (ru) f (poméxa) Scottish Gaelic: amaladh m, bacadh m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пре̏прека f, пре̏пона f Roman: prȅpreka (sh) f, prȅpona (sh) f Slovak: prekážka f Slovene: ovira (sl) f, prepreka f Southern Altai: буудак (buudak) Spanish: obstáculo (es) m, óbice (es), traba (es), estorbo (es) Swedish: hinder (sv) n Tagalog: balakid (tl), harang (tl) Tajik: монеа (tg) (monea), садд (sadd) Telugu: ఆటంకం (te) (āṭaṅkaṁ), అడ్డం (te) (aḍḍaṁ) Thai: อุปสรรค (th) (ùp-bpà-sàk), ขวากหนาม (th) (kwàak-nǎam), มาร (th) (maan) Tigrinya: ዕንቅፋት (ʿənḳəfat) Tocharian B: pkante Turkish: engel (tr), ket (tr), mahzur (tr), mani (tr) Turkmen: garsylyk, garşylyk Ukrainian: перешко́да f (pereškóda), перепо́на f (perepóna), прити́чина f (prytýčyna), перегоро́да f (perehoróda) Urdu: رُکاوَٹ‎ f (rukāvaṭ) Uzbek: toʻsiq (uz) Vietnamese: bước cản, chướng ngại (vi) Welsh: rhwystr m

Anagrams

• Casebolt, costable

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin obstāculum.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /opsˈta.klə/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /upsˈta.klə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /opsˈta.kle/

Noun

obstacle m (plural obstacles)

1. obstacle

Derived terms

• obstaculitzar

Further reading

• “obstacle” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obstāculum, from obstō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔp.stakl/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

obstacle m (plural obstacles)

1. obstacle

Derived terms

• course d'obstacles
• faire obstacle
• saut d'obstacles

Further reading

• “obstacle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.