Not useful or realistic for actual everyday use; difficult to do or accomplish in real life.
From Latin 'in-' (not) + 'practicus' (relating to practice or action). The word combines the negation prefix with the root for practical, literally meaning 'not practical' since around the 1800s.
The word 'impractical' became more common during the Industrial Revolution when inventors had to distinguish between ideas that worked in theory versus machines that actually functioned in factories—a crucial difference when billions of dollars were at stake.
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