Impairment

How to spell impairment

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce impairment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does impairment mean?

1. nounA weakening, damage, or reduction in the strength, quality, or function of something.

Impairment in a sentence

• The accident left her with a lasting hearing impairment.

• The report warned of cognitive impairment caused by chronic sleep loss.

Where does impairment come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin adjective peior, meaning 'worse', which gave the Late Latin verb impejorare, literally 'to make worse'. That verb passed into Old French as empeirer, and Middle English borrowed it around the 1300s as 'empair' or 'impair', meaning to damage, weaken, or diminish something. The noun 'impairment', for the resulting state of being weakened or damaged, was formed by adding the standard French-derived suffix -ment. The same peior root for 'worse' also lurks behind 'pejorative', the word for language that puts someone down. A useful spelling note: the middle is 'pair' as in a couple, even though there is nothing about twos here, and the ending is the plain -ment, so the trickiest part is simply remembering the single, clean 'pair' spelling rather than doubling letters.

How the word is built

• im- (a form of in-, here meaning 'into' or intensive)
• pair (from Latin pejorare 'to make worse')
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)