obstacle

English

Etymology

From Middle English obstacle, from Old French obstacle, from Latin obstāculum.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒbstəkəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑbstəkəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ob‧sta‧cle

Noun

obstacle (plural obstacles)

1. Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress, either physically or figuratively

   A big obstacle to understanding the manual was that it had been poorly translated from the Japanese.

Synonyms

• impediment
• hindrance
• hurdle
• barrier
• complication
• snag
• See also Thesaurus:hindrance

Derived terms

• obstacle course
• obstacle race
• obstacle-ridden

Translations

something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress

• Albanian: pengesë (sq) f
• Arabic: عَقَبَة m (ʕaqaba), حَاجِز m (ḥājiz), عَائِق m (ʕāʔiq)
• Armenian: խոչընդոտ (hy) (xočʻəndot), արգելք (hy) (argelkʻ)
• Aromanian: cheadicã f, ambodyiu m
• Azerbaijani: əngəl, sədd
• Belarusian: перашко́да f (pjeraškóda), перапо́на f (pjerapóna), перагаро́да f (pjeraharóda), паме́шка f (pamjéška)
• Bhojpuri: रुकावट (rukāvaṭ)
• Bulgarian: препя́тствие (bg) n (prepjátstvie), прегра́да (bg) f (pregráda)
• Burmese: အဆီးအတား (my) (a.hci:a.ta:), အတားအဆီး (my) (a.ta:a.hci:)
• Buryat: һаад (haad)
• Catalan: obstacle (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 障礙 / 障碍 (zh) (zhàng'ài), 妨礙 / 妨碍 (zh) (fáng'ài)

• Cimbrian: briighe m
• Czech: překážka (cs) f
• Danish: forhindring c, hindring c
• Dutch: obstakel (nl) n, belemmering (nl) f, horde (nl) f
• Esperanto: obstaklo, malhelpo
• Estonian: takistus (et)
• Finnish: este (fi)
• French: obstacle (fr) m
• Galician: obstáculo m
• Georgian: დაბრკოლება (dabrḳoleba)
• German: Hindernis (de) n, Hürde (de) f
• Greek: εμπόδιο (el) n (empódio), πρόσκομμα (el) n (próskomma)

  Ancient: κώλυμα n (kṓluma)

• Hebrew: מִכְשׁוֹל (he) m (mikhshól)
• Hindi: बाधा (hi) f (bādhā), रुकावट f (rukāvaṭ)
• Hungarian: akadály (hu), obsztákulum (archaic)
• Icelandic: hindrun (is) f
• Ido: obstaklo (io)
• Ingrian: esse
• Irish: constaic f
• Italian: ostacolo (it) m, inciampo (it) m
• Japanese: 障害 (ja) (しょうがい, shōgai), 邪魔 (ja) (じゃま, jama), 障害物 (ja) (しょうがいぶつ, shōgaibutsu)
• Kalmyk: саад (saad)
• Kannada: ವಿಘ್ನ (kn) (vighna)
• Kazakh: тосқауыл (tosqauyl)
• Khmer: ទំនាល់ (km) (tumnŏəl)
• Kikuyu: mũhĩnga class 3
• Korean: 장애(障礙) (ko) (jang'ae), 장애물(障礙物) (jang'aemul), 방해물(妨害物) (ko) (banghaemul), 장해(障害) (ko) (janghae)
• Kyrgyz: тоскоолдук (ky) (toskoolduk)
• Lao: ອຸປະສັກ (lo) (ʼu pa sak)
• Latin: obstantia f, obiectus m, ōbex m or f, mora (la), obstāculum n, impedīmentum n
• Latvian: šķērslis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: kliūtis m
• Macedonian: пречка f (prečka), препрека f (prepreka)
• Malay: halangan (ms), aral (ms)
• Maori: taunahua
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: саад (mn) (saad), бартаа (mn) (bartaa)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hinder (no) n, hindring m or f, aber (no) n

  Nynorsk: hinder n, hindring f

• Occitan: obstacle (oc) m
• Old English: hremming f
• Ottoman Turkish: عائق (â’ik)
• Persian: مانع (fa) (mâne'), سد (fa) (sadd)
• Plautdietsch: Jäajenstoss m, Hindaniss n
• Polish: przeszkoda (pl) f, trudność (pl) f, ambaras (pl) m
• Portuguese: obstáculo (pt) m, estorvo (pt) m, impedimento (pt) m, empecilho (pt) m, obstrução (pt) f, entrave (pt) m, óbice (pt) m, barreira (pt) f, tolhimento m, trambolho (pt) m, travanca f
• Quechua: hark'ay
• Romanian: obstacol (ro), piedică (ro)
• Russian: препя́тствие (ru) n (prepjátstvije), прегра́да (ru) f (pregráda), поме́ха (ru) f (poméxa)
• Scottish Gaelic: amaladh m, bacadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пре̏прека f, пре̏пона f

  Roman: prȅpreka (sh) f, prȅpona (sh) f

• Slovak: prekážka f
• Slovene: ovira (sl) f, prepreka f
• Southern Altai: буудак (buudak)
• Spanish: obstáculo (es) m, óbice (es) m, traba (es) f, estorbo (es) m, contumeria (es) f, pereque (es) m
• Swedish: hinder (sv) n
• Tagalog: balakid (tl), harang (tl)
• Tajik: монеа (tg) (monea), садд (sadd)
• Telugu: ఆటంకం (te) (āṭaṅkaṁ), అడ్డం (te) (aḍḍaṁ)
• Thai: อุปสรรค (th) (ùp-bpà-sàk), ขวากหนาม (th) (kwàak-nǎam), มาร (th) (maan)
• Tigrinya: ዕንቅፋት (ʿənḳəfat)
• Tocharian B: pkante
• Turkish: engel (tr), ket (tr) (regional from Armenian), mahzur (tr), mani (tr), set (tr) (physical)
• Turkmen: garsylyk, garşylyk
• Tày: cạm
• Ukrainian: перешко́да f (pereškóda), перепо́на f (perepóna), прити́чина f (prytýčyna), перегоро́да f (perehoróda)
• Urdu: رُکاوَٹ f (rukāvaṭ)
• Uzbek: toʻsiq (uz)
• Vietnamese: bước cản, chướng ngại (vi), trở ngại (vi)
• Welsh: rhwystr m

Anagrams

• Casebolt, costable

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obstāculum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [upsˈta.klə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [opsˈta.klə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [opsˈta.kle]

Noun

obstacle m (plural obstacles)

1. obstacle

Derived terms

• obstaculitzar

Further reading

• “obstacle”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obstāculum, from obstō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔp.stakl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

obstacle m (plural obstacles)

1. obstacle

Derived terms

• course d’obstacles
• faire obstacle
• saut d’obstacles

Further reading

• “obstacle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.