Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use impasse in a sentence

13 example sentences · noun

Impasse means a road with no exit. Example: “The hostile forces were at an impasse; neither could attack with enough force and still defend against the retaliatory counterattack.”

Examples of impasse by meaning

nounA deadlock or stalemate situation in which no progress can be made.

  • “It seems to me the thing's an impasse.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XIV
  • "Young man, this town is at a bit of an impasse.2010, Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest
  • The agreement, which falls short of the sprawling changes championed by Democrats, is a significant step toward ending a yearslong impasse over gun reform legislation.2022 June 12, Emily Cochrane, Annie Karni, “Senators Reach Bipartisan Deal on Gun Safety”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

More sentences with impasse

  • The hostile forces were at an impasse; neither could attack with enough force and still defend against the retaliatory counterattack.From the entry retaliatory
  • Whether impasse takes over the puddle or speeches the mirrorful side-step.2005, Sarah Gridley, Weather Eye Open, Berkeley, Calif.; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 75. From the entry mirrorful
  • In the end, meeting a mutual impasse, they adopt a policy of "whip the cat.1982, Terence Hanbury White, François Gallix, Letters to a Friend: The Correspondence Between T.H. White and L.J. Potts, page 137. From the entry whip the cat
  • Fatalistic in the face of a parliamentary impasse, Mr.2025 September 8, Roger Cohen, “French Prime Minister Bayrou Loses Confidence Vote, Putting Pressure on Macron”, in The New York Times…. From the entry foretell
  • He solves all his ultimate impasses with ultimate violence.2007, J. Harold Ellens, Radical Grace. From the entry sick puppy
  • Is there any way out of this impasse?1996, Agnes Gaudu, “Tibet: 1995--the year of anniversaries”, in Australia & World Affairs, number 28, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN. From the entry Greater China
  • Once in a purple moon, it may be necessary for the top men to settle some awful impasse between themselves.1988, Charles Reynell (publisher), The Economist, Volume 307, Issues 7544-7556, page 11. From the entry once in a purple moon
  • Their works, despite a laudable attempt to break the impasse we have seen in writing text-based histories of ancient Israel, are essentially nonhistories.2001, William G Dever, What did the biblical writers know, and when did they know it?. From the entry nonhistory
  • Rather, it signals a type of commentary that has reached an impasse, uncertain of how to further develop an interpretation of and response to the exigencies of global consumption.2010, Kim Humphery, “The New Politics of Consumption”, in Excess: Anti-consumerism in the West, Cambridge; Malden, Mass.: Polity Press…. From the entry affluenza
  • A small army of AOL technicians vigilantly patrols for snerts (read the "The Control Room" sidebar in this chapter), but the battle is often an impasse.1995, Tom Lichty, AOL for Windows 95 Membership Kit and Tour Guide, →ISBN. From the entry snert

Meaning of impasse

  1. noun A road with no exit.
  2. noun A deadlock or stalemate situation in which no progress can be made.

Full definition of impasse

Questions about impasse in a sentence

How do you use impasse in a sentence?
Impasse is used as a noun. For example: “The hostile forces were at an impasse; neither could attack with enough force and still defend against the retaliatory counterattack.”
What is a short sentence with impasse?
“Is there any way out of this impasse?”
What does impasse mean?
Impasse means a road with no exit.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: impasse (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use impasse in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/impasse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.