impact

English Online Dictionary. What means impact‎? What does impact mean?

English

Etymology

Attested since the 17th century, from Latin impāctus.

Pronunciation

• (noun): enPR: imʹpăkt, IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpækt/
• (verb): enPR: im-păktʹ, IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpækt/
• • Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

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.

3. (chiefly medicine) A forced impinging.

4. (figurative, proscribed) A significant or strong influence or effect.

Usage notes

• 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".)

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• impinge

Collocations

Translations

Verb

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.

2. (transitive) To compress; to compact; to press into something or pack together.

3. (transitive, figurative, proscribed) To significantly or strongly influence or affect; to have an impact on.

4. (transitive, rare) To stamp or impress onto something.

Usage notes

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

• impaction
• impactor

Translations

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English impact.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpɑkt/
• Hyphenation: im‧pact

Noun

impact m (plural impacts)

1. impact

Synonyms

• invloed
• effect

French

Etymology

From Latin, see above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pakt/

Noun

impact m (plural impacts)

1. (literally or figuratively) impact

Further reading

• “impact”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French impact, from Latin impactus.

Noun

impact n (plural impacturi)

1. impact

Declension