Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Unwise to implement or maintain in practice.
  • adjective Incapable of dealing efficiently with practical matters, especially finances.
  • adjective Not a part of experience, fact, or practice; theoretical.
  • adjective Impracticable.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Unpractical.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not practical.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not practical; impracticable.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not practical; not workable or not given to practical matters
  • adjective not practical or realizable; speculative

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From im- + practical

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word impractical.

Examples

  • Well, in an essay published by Newsweek late last year, Rubin worried about too much spending on job-creation, opposed forcing the riskiest derivative contracts onto public exchanges, resisted an accounting reform that would require financial institutions to assess their assets based on actual market prices rather than just making things up, and warned against what he calls impractical proposals to break up "too big to fail" banks.

    Vice President Biden Lends His Prestige To Robert Rubin's Relaunch 2010

  • Well, in an essay published by Newsweek late last year, Rubin worried about too much spending on job-creation, opposed forcing the riskiest derivative contracts onto public exchanges, resisted an accounting reform that would require financial institutions to assess their assets based on actual market prices rather than just making things up, and warned against what he calls impractical proposals to break up "too big to fail" banks.

    Vice President Biden Lends His Prestige To Robert Rubin's Relaunch 2010

  • Sandra Aistars, executive director of the Copyright Alliance, an umbrella organization that supports the existing legislative proposals, was not impressed by the Wyden alternative, which she called "impractical for individual artists and creators."

    NYT > Home Page By MICHAEL CIEPLY 2011

  • Employers pay big bucks to people who excel in impractical subjects because such people tend to be smart, conscientious, and obedient to authority - in short, to be good workers.

    The Education of Educators, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • The depth of Lake Washington makes suspension type bridges (cable stay included) impractical from a cost standpoint (you can tank the glaciers for that).

    Council Moving Closer to McGinn on 520 Light Rail « PubliCola 2010

  • Hmm, I KNOW my old PI who insisted upon having glass versions of everything lab related, no matter how impractical, is laughing maniacally right now.

    Your Biology isn't Safe Candid Engineer 2008

  • This idea seems really impractical from a political standpoint as it reeks of corporate welfare and is likely to really piss of the Lou Dobbs/nativist crowd.

    Archive 2007-10-01 xtra 2007

  • This idea seems really impractical from a political standpoint as it reeks of corporate welfare and is likely to really piss of the Lou Dobbs/nativist crowd.

    Foreign Aid Tax Credit xtra 2007

  • | Reply the only thing that makes it impractical is no one has the desire to do it.

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - The “Star Wars” Worlds: More Science Than Fiction? 2005

  • In terms of health care reform, they were papered over by the hopes of many progressive liberals -- who were willing to give up fighting for Medicare-For-All as politically "impractical" -- of achieving a robust public option as an acceptable compromise in the context of a larger health insurance mandate.

    Miles Mogulescu: The Democrats' Authoritarian Health "Reform" Bill and the Ascendency of Corporatism in the Democratic Party 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.