1
Slow physical movement
Create an obstacle that restricts or delays travel or flow.
Example
Dense ice impeded the ship's progress through the channel.
impede
/ɪmˈpiːd/ · im-PEEDverb
To prevent, obstruct, or slow progress.
Use impede when an obstacle makes movement, development, communication, or completion more difficult or slower.
What impede Really Means
The word becomes easier to use when its closely related senses are separated and compared.
2
Hinder a process
Make research, communication, or completion more difficult or time-consuming.
Example
Frequent equipment failures impeded the collection of reliable data.
3
Restrict development
Hold back the growth of a skill, institution, organism, or system.
Example
Limited access to water may impede seedling development.
Use impede Naturally
Notice how the surrounding noun or clause reveals the exact shade of meaning.
Dense ice impeded the ship's progress through the channel.
Inconsistent terminology can impede communication across disciplines.
The damaged equipment severely impeded the team's ability to collect data.
Precision Matters
Impede overlaps with several common words, but each carries a different emphasis.
impede
vs.May merely slow or obstruct without stopping something completely.
prevent
Stops an event or action from occurring.
impede
vs.Usually concerns an external obstacle to progress or movement.
inhibit
Restrains an action, response, or biological process.
impede
vs.Emphasises the obstacle that makes progress difficult.
delay
Emphasises that an event happens later than expected.
impede
vs.Can apply to abstract development or communication as well as movement.
obstruct
Often describes physically blocking a path or deliberately hindering action.
Test impede in Context
The sediment makes the vessels' movement more difficult and restricted.
1
Sediment accumulated in the narrow channel, reducing its depth enough to ___ the movement of research vessels at low tide.