Definition of "impediment" in English

noun

1. A hindrance; that which impedes or obstructs progress; impedance.

2. A disability, especially one affecting the hearing or speech.

   • Working in a noisy factory left me with a slight hearing impediment.
   • 1730, Joseph Addison, The Evidences of the Christian Religion, London: J. Tonson, Additional Discourses, Section 10, p. 308, Let us suppose a person blind and deaf from his birth, who being grown to man’s estate, is by the Dead-palsy, or some other cause, deprived of his Feeling, Tasting, and Smelling; and at the same time has the impediment of his Hearing removed, and the film taken from his eyes […]

3. (chiefly in the plural) Baggage, especially that of an army; impedimenta.