Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The striking of one body against another; collision. See Synonyms at collision.
- n. The force or impetus transmitted by a collision.
- n. The effect or impression of one thing on another: still gauging the impact of automation on the lives of factory workers.
- n. The power of making a strong, immediate impression: a speech that lacked impact.
- v. To pack firmly together.
- v. To strike forcefully: meteorites impacting the lunar surface.
- v. Usage Problem To have an effect or impact on: "No region ... has been more impacted by emerging demographic and economic trends” ( Joel Kotkin).
- v. Usage Problem To have an effect or impact.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To drive close; press closely or firmly; pack in.
- n. The act of striking against something; a blow; a stroke.
- n. Specifically — In mech., the blow, or act of striking, of a body having momentum; also, the change of momentum in amount and direction produced by such a blow.
- n. In gunnery, the single blow of a projectile against a fixed or moving object.
Wiktionary
- n. The force or energy of a collision of two objects.
- n. A forced impinging.
- n. A significant or strong influence; an effect.
- v. transitive To compress; to compact; to press or pack together.
- v. transitive, proscribed To influence; to affect; to have an impact on.
- v. transitive To collide or strike.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To drive close; to press firmly together: to wedge into a place.
- v. To affect or influence, especially in a significant or undesirable manner.
- v. To collide forcefully with; to strike.
- n. Contact or impression by touch; collision; forcible contact; force communicated.
- n. (Mech.) The single instantaneous stroke of a body in motion against another either in motion or at rest.
WordNet 3.0
- v. press or wedge together; pack together
- n. a forceful consequence; a strong effect
- n. influencing strongly
- v. have an effect upon
- n. the striking of one body against another
- n. the violent interaction of individuals or groups entering into combat
Etymologies
- From Latin impāctus, perfect passive participle of impingō ("dash against, impinge"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin impāctus, past participle of impingere, to push against; see impinge. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A number of studies on the social impact of the Tangaye project were undertaken by Roberts. 3 These studies examined the impact of mechanising arduous, time-consuming village tasks on the life of women, with the power source viewed as a black-box. 4 They were studies of the effects of pumped water supply and a power-operated grain mill in a remote village.”
“I define and use the term impact indicators as those issues that directly affect positively or negatively food security such as population, water, land, and economic growth/development.”
“Mr. Roberts said the company can better absorb the margin impact from the deal now that costs are lowered.”
The Wall Street Journal: Brinker Profit Rises 36%, but Sales Slump
“You guys are delusional … Flora brings together excellent quotes, and the main impact is … (as she puts in her piece), “the war will only be lost at home”.”
Waldo Jaquith - Conservative blogger accidentally promotes Webb.
“But their impact is usually as decaying, moisture-laden tropical storms (wind speeds under 74 miles per hour) or their remnants, rather than hurricanes.”
The Washington Post: Otto may form, but tropical season slowing?
“There's still a lot of wariness of what that long-term impact is going to be.”
The Huffington Post: Gulf Oil Spill 6 Month Anniversary: A Look At The Health Of The Ocean
“The opportunity to hyper personalize communication and accurately track our members and their impact is here.”
The Huffington Post: George Weiner: Is Your Data at a Middle School Dance?
“One route to impact is to have success in American Industry.”
Thoughts on Systems Software Research is Dead « Beki's Blog (there's an original name)
“The longer-term impact is on how we view them in terms of reliability.”
The Wall Street Journal: LSE Delays Engine Upgrade After Outage
“I am sure, of course, the same happens elsewhere, but in our little islands, the impact is always so much closer to our daily lives.”
Global Voices in English » Bermuda, U.S.A.: Guantanamo Controversy
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘impact’.
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Open List: There's A Fee For That!
List of fees, tolls, surcharges - stupid, disingenuous, predatory, or otherwise - that are levied by governments, banks, phone companies and businesses against citizens, customers, and consumers.
overdraft, connection, reconnection, deconnection, restocking, late, impact, cancellation, universal default, overuse, usage, transfer-balance and 143 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Instant List
Things that are instant.
noodles, messenger, coffee, approval, breakfast, camera, attraction, espresso, eye lift, facelift, film, gratification and 26 more...
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fasten-ating
a reflection on the Indo-European root pag & pak to fasten
peace, pay, patio, fay, fang, impact, pax, newfangled, pagan, peasant, pectin, spinto and 58 more...
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quotato's Words
prospicience, appoggiatura, actually, thrum, nisus, univocal, eschatology, concupiscible, penury, psychedelic, vapid, braggadocio and 107 more...
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Faintheart's Words
onomatopoeia, no, terrafactive, word, faint, heart, joy, quixotic, karla, half, amp, tardis and 181 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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Tunguska
stupendous, tremendous, immense, solicitous, crust, seismometer, explosion, impact, supersonic, sonic boom, boisterous, bituminous and 13 more...
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conceptwriter's Words
sloth, jackass, dickhead, technostalgic, futuristic, enigma, impact, addict, nasty, premium, extraordinaire, yearning and 262 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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KaeZoo's Words
flingers, unhinged, driven, flanked, arboreal, venerable, endearing, iconoclastic, fletcher, competent, fireproof, cavernous and 215 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2263 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for impact.
jack_dharma I've never had a problem differentiating between "affect" and "effect." They are spelled differently and pronounced differently (however slight that difference may seem). Impact as a verb is used primarily by the moderately educated and the pretentious, such as weather forecasters who say things like: "The liquid precipitation will impact your commute tomorrow morning," when they should just tell us that it's going to rain. Jan 1, 2012
raylee GlamourGirl, I agree! Nov 15, 2009
eggoabbas Using this as both a noun meaning "effect" and verb meaning "affect" avoids the confusion between these two similar words. Maybe this is why it's so popular. Jun 26, 2009
GlamourGirl I know it's a losing battle by now, but I will never abide this word as a transitive verb. You don't "impact" something, you "affect" it. You can destroy it, tame it, lengthen it, shorten it, kill it, nurture it, hurt it, help it, bend it, build it, or do any number of other things to affect it, but you don't "impact" it! Jun 10, 2009
raylee Impact as a verb is unpleasant, brutal, painful. I cringe. My skin crawls. May 8, 2009
whichbe What's the impact this word? Oct 8, 2008
twwilliams This word is used (and misused) in business speak: "that new product will have a big impact on our sales." Or worse: "the change to our commercial will be impactful on our third-quarter sales." Every time I hear the word used this way, I think about impaction of the bowel, and I see that Ninjawords uses that as an example in its definition of the word. Dec 12, 2006