1
a
: a predicament affording no obvious escape
b
: deadlock
2
: an impassable road or way : cul-de-sac
Synonyms
Examples of impasse in a Sentence
The players are poised to strike after Thursday's games because they believe, with good reason, that if no agreement is reached by the end of the post-season, the owners will declare an impasse …
—
Murray Chass, New York Times, 9 Aug. 1994
We seem to have been forced into an impasse. We need to understand why space-time singularities have the structures that they appear to have; but space-time singularities are regions where our understanding of physics has reached its limits.
—Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind, 1989
I think the civil rights movement in its early and middle years offered the best way out of America's racial impasse: in this society, race must not be a source of advantage or disadvantage for anyone.
—Shelby Steele, Harper's, June 1988
An arbitrator was called in to break the impasse.
She had reached an impasse in her career.
Murray Chass, New York Times, 9 Aug. 1994
We seem to have been forced into an impasse. We need to understand why space-time singularities have the structures that they appear to have; but space-time singularities are regions where our understanding of physics has reached its limits.
—Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind, 1989
I think the civil rights movement in its early and middle years offered the best way out of America's racial impasse: in this society, race must not be a source of advantage or disadvantage for anyone.
—Shelby Steele, Harper's, June 1988
An arbitrator was called in to break the impasse.
She had reached an impasse in her career.
Recent Examples on the Web
The impasse left thousands of former public employees scrambling to determine whether to ditch the health insurer or risk not being allowed back to visit doctors, specialists and medical teams that some seniors have been seeing for years, if not decades.
—Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 6 Nov. 2024
Recent developments indicate that the Boeing impasse could be near an end.
—Jeff Cox, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2024
The potential breakthrough ends a lengthy impasse marked by miscues and finger-pointing on both sides.
—Vivek Wadhwa, Fortune, 19 Oct. 2024
What makes the impasse especially affecting is how Jelks and Holland subtly evoke how alike yet different two closely connected men with brutal pasts can be.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2024
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Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 6 Nov. 2024
Recent developments indicate that the Boeing impasse could be near an end.
—Jeff Cox, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2024
The potential breakthrough ends a lengthy impasse marked by miscues and finger-pointing on both sides.
—Vivek Wadhwa, Fortune, 19 Oct. 2024
What makes the impasse especially affecting is how Jelks and Holland subtly evoke how alike yet different two closely connected men with brutal pasts can be.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for impasse
Dictionary Entries Near impasse
Cite this Entry
“Impasse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impasse. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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Legal Definition
impasse
noun
im·passe
ˈim-ˌpas, im-ˈpas 
: a point in especially labor negotiations at which reaching an agreement is impossible because neither party is willing to compromise or change position
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