Today we’re continuing with our newest feature, Word Knots, where we look at common situations involving words that are often confused or misused. 

We primarily use two highly recommended sources: The Dictionary of Disagreeable English by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Chicago: Writer’s Digest Books) and Usage and Abusage by Eric Partridge (New York: W.W. Norton).

Rather than take a stern ‘grammar police’ approach we try to keep it light and in each installment point out examples of semantic confusion that should be considered “must to avoid.”

From Partridge:

Impassible

Misused for impassable.

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Let’s look at the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary definitions:

impassible

adjective

1 a: incapable of suffering or of experiencing pain

   b: incapable of being harmed : inaccessible to injury

2   : incapable of feeling

impassable

adjective

     : incapable of being passed: such as

   a: incapable of being traveled, traveled through, or crossed

   b: incapable of being put into circulation

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Examples of each:

After all the controversies that had led to trouble, John became impassible.

In the title bout, the reigning champ looked impassible against his opponent.

Due to the thick vegetation, the trail was impassable.

Luckily, the counterfeit currency was impassable.

This one is an interesting case because the two words have completely different meanings and neither the default dictionary in Microsoft Word nor AI will be of any help.

Type in “impassible” and Word gives you the red squiggly line indicating a misspelling (and suggests “impassable”). And AI would likely accept either, but would be unable to distinguish which one you intend to use, since it cannot comprehend or doesn’t understand the context.

Spelling is important, which is why checking your work is a critical step toward ensuring that your intended meaning is clear.

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