Onwerkbare

Onwerkbare is an adjective used in Dutch and in some Germanic-language contexts to describe plans, designs, or proposals that cannot be implemented in practice, i.e., unworkable or infeasible. The term is formed from the negating prefix on- and the adjective werkbaar, meaning workable; cognate forms exist in German (unwerkbar) and English (unworkable).

In Dutch, onwerkbaar or onwerkbare is typically used to indicate that a given item cannot be executed under current constraints such as budget, technical feasibility, legal barriers, or social acceptability. The form onwerkbare is the inflected variant used after definite articles (de/het) and other determiner contexts.

Common usage contexts include engineering, public policy, business strategy, and project planning where feasibility is a deciding factor. For example, "Het voorstel is onwerkbaar onder de huidige omstandigheden" or "Een onwerkbare oplossing."

More neutral synonyms include onhaalbaar, onuitvoerbaar, and infeasible in English contexts; in Dutch, use with care as each has nuance. Criticism: The label "onwerkbaar" can be deployed rhetorically to dismiss options; despite its precision, feasibility assessments should rely on clear criteria and evidence.

Related terms include feasible, haalbaar, uitvoerbaar; and the related concept of a feasibility study. See also unworkable, impracticable, infeasible for cross-language comparisons and broader context.