obstacle

1. 1.

   something immaterial that stands in the way and must be circumvented or surmounted

   “lack of imagination is an obstacle to one's advancement”

   “the poverty of a district is an obstacle to good education”

   “the filibuster was a major obstruction to the success of their plan”

   Synonymsobstruction

   Broaderhindrance

   Narrowerbarrierhang-uphurdlestymie
2. 2.

   an obstruction that stands in the way (and must be removed or surmounted or circumvented)

   Broaderobstruction

   Narrowerhazardstumbling blockwater jump

Other forms of obstacle

plural

obstacles·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about obstacle

What does obstacle mean?

obstacle means "something immaterial that stands in the way and must be circumvented or surmounted". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in obstacle?

obstacle has 3 syllables: ob-sta-cle. The stress falls on "ob". In IPA it is /ˈɑbstəkəl/.

What is another word for obstacle?

Close synonyms include obstruction. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is obstacle a common word?

obstacle is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.