stumbling block

1. 1.

   any obstacle or impediment

   Broaderobstacle

Questions about stumbling block

What does stumbling block mean?

stumbling block means "any obstacle or impediment".

Is stumbling block a common word?

stumbling block is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.