What does infeasibility mean?
Infeasibility is the condition of a plan, proposal, or outcome being impossible or impracticable to achieve. It is a formal noun used particularly in technical, economic, and organizational contexts, where feasibility assessments determine whether a project can proceed within practical limits such as cost, time, technology, or available resources. The word often suggests more than a temporary difficulty: it identifies a constraint that makes the proposed course of action untenable. Infeasibility can be technical, such as the impossibility of meeting a performance requirement with existing hardware, or economic, such as a project's costs exceeding any plausible return. It is also used figuratively in arguments about laws, policies, and strategies. While the related adjective infeasible describes something that cannot be carried out, the noun emphasizes the state or condition itself.
nounThe state or condition of being impossible or impracticable to achieve. It refers to a proposed action, plan, or outcome that cannot be carried out under the relevant circumstances.
- The state or condition of being impossible or impracticable to achieve.
"The committee concluded that the proposed timetable was an infeasibility rather than a realistic goal."
"Engineers identified the infeasibility of completing the bridge within the available deadline."
"Her argument exposed the infeasibility of the policy without offering a practical alternative."
Used for separate instances of a plan, proposal, or condition being impossible or impracticable.
"The report documented the technical infeasibilities of several proposed solutions."
Infeasibility names the point where a plan stops being merely difficult and becomes impossible to carry out.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does infeasibility come from?
The word was formed in the 19th century from the prefix in-, meaning not, and feasible, from the Latin facilis, meaning easy or doable. The Latin root also underlies facility, faculty, and facile, all related to ease of action or performance. Infeasibility therefore literally denotes the condition of not being feasible.
Related word forms
How infeasibility is actually used
Usually formal and somewhat technical. It is most common in discussions of projects, policies, systems, plans, and proposals, and often implies that an obstacle is fundamental rather than temporary.