Which to use
“impassable” and “impossible” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,854
- “impassable” frequency rank
- #1,724
- “impossible” frequency rank
- 41578
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impassable | impossible |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Incapable of being passed over, crossed, or negotiated. | Not possible; not able to be done or happen. |
Letter map: impassable vs impossible
Shared letters muted; letters that set impassable and impossible apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Pair insight - impassable / impossible
impassable and impossible are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impassable is recorded at frequency rank #39,854, classified as anadj. impossible is at rank #1,724, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bəl/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 41578, this pair ranks #257,030 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of impassable vs impossible
Shared letters: beilmps. Private to "impassable": a. Private to "impossible": o.
"impassable" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV · "impossible" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- impassable ← imapssable · immpassable · impasable · impasasble · impassabble · impassabel · impassablle · impassalbe
- impossible ← immpossible · imopssible · imposible · imposisble · impossable · impossbile · impossibble · impossibel
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "impassable" for "impossible" ever safe?
Frequency check: "impassable" vs "impossible" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "impassable" and "impossible".
- Full dictionary entry for "impassable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "impossible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #257,030 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impassable" and "impossible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impossible vs impossibly". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #257,030 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.