impracticability

1. Impossible to do or carry out: Refloating the sunken ship intact proved impracticable because of its fragility.

2. Unfit for passage: roads impracticable in winter.

3. Archaic Unmanageable; intractable.

Usage Note: The adjective impracticable applies to a course of action that is impossible to carry out or put into practice; impractical, though it can be used in this way, also can be weaker in sense, suggesting that the course of action would yield an insufficient return or would have little practical value. A plan for a new stadium may be rejected as impracticable if the site is too marshy to permit safe construction, but if the objection is that the site is too remote for patrons to attend games easily, the plan is better described as impractical. See Usage Note at practicable.