impact

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Attested since the 17th century, from Latin impāctus.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (noun): enPR: imʹpăkt, IPA(key): /ˈɪmpækt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (verb): enPR: im-păktʹ, IPA(key): /ɪmˈpækt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Noun[edit]

impact (countable and uncountable, plural impacts)

  1. The striking of one body against another; collision.
  2. The force or energy of a collision of two objects.
    The hatchet cut the wood on impact.
  3. (chiefly medicine) A forced impinging.
    His spine had an impingement; L4 and L5 made impact, which caused numbness in his leg.
  4. (figurative, proscribed) A significant or strong influence or effect.
    His friend's opinion had an impact on his decision.
    Our choice of concrete will have a tremendous impact on the building's mechanical performance.
    • 2016, Jayson Lusk, Unnaturally Delicious, →ISBN, page 111:
      One way to reduce the environmental impact of meat eating is to make livestock more productive.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Adjectives often applied to "impact": social, political, physical, positive, negative, good, bad, beneficial, harmful, significant, great, important, strong, big, small, real, huge, likely, actual, potential, devastating, disastrous, true, primary.
  • The adposition generally used with "impact" is "on" (such as in last example in section above)
  • There are some who find the figurative noun sense problematic, with a low threshold for labeling such use as overuse (cliché). In defensive editing, the solution is to replace the figurative noun sense with effect and the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. (Rarely, a phrase such as "the impact of late effects" is better stetted to avoid "the effect of [...] effects".)

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from impact (noun)

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

impact (third-person singular simple present impacts, present participle impacting, simple past and past participle impacted)

  1. (transitive) To collide or strike, the act of impinging.
    When the hammer impacts the nail, it bends.
  2. (transitive) To compress; to compact; to press into something or pack together.
    The footprints of birds do not impact the soil in the way those of dinosaurs do.
  3. (transitive, figurative, proscribed) To significantly or strongly influence or affect; to have an impact on.
    I can make the changes, but it will impact the schedule.
  4. (transitive, rare) To stamp or impress onto something.
    Ideas impacted on the mind.

Usage notes[edit]

Some authorities object to the verb sense of impact meaning "to significantly or strongly influence or affect; to have an impact on". Although most verbification instances in English draw no prescriptive attention, a few do, including this one. To avoid controversy, one can replace the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. See also the usage note for the noun sense.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin, see above.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

impact m (plural impacts)

  1. (literally or figuratively) impact

Further reading[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French impact, from Latin impactus.

Noun[edit]

impact n (plural impacturi)

  1. impact

Declension[edit]

Declension of impact
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) impact impactul (niște) impacturi impacturile
genitive/dative (unui) impact impactului (unor) impacturi impacturilor
vocative impactule impacturilor
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