impacted
Americanadjective
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tightly or immovably wedged in.
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Dentistry. noting a tooth so confined in its socket as to be incapable of normal eruption.
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driven together; tightly packed.
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densely populated or crowded; overcrowded.
an impacted school district.
adjective
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(of a tooth) unable to erupt, esp because of being wedged against another tooth below the gum
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(of a fracture) having the jagged broken ends wedged into each other
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of impacted
First recorded 1675–85; obsolete adjective impact (from Latin impāctus, past participle of impingere “to fasten, cause to collide, strike,” equivalent to im- “in” + pag-, variant stem of pangere “to drive in, plant firmly” + -tus past participle suffix) + -ed 2; see im- 1, impinge
Explanation
If your doctor tells you that something is impacted, that's not a good thing. It means wedged together and unable to move. Wisdom teeth are often impacted, which makes one question how wise they actually are. A fractured bone can be impacted as well, which means the two broken ends are wedged together. Perhaps you could say that your Christmas stocking is so jam packed and impacted with goodies that you can barely pull anything out — but that's about the only non-painful association with the word imaginable.
Vocabulary lists containing impacted
This Week In Words: October 5–11, 2019
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Top Ten Most Relevant Words from the Third Republican Debate, October 28, 2015
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Vocabulary from the Eleventh Republican Debate March 3, 2016
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It has some exposure to the Middle East, where the war has impacted operations, but 83% of its production is U.S.-based, with particularly strong positions in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico.
From Barron's • May 29, 2026
"The conflict has impacted energy prices globally, and has already affected home heating oil, petrol and diesel prices."
From BBC • May 29, 2026
Eurozone government bonds might be impacted by significant supply coming from an Italian auction as well as from Austrian and Portuguese bond syndications.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
“And now it has impacted our ability to figure out how to keep people safe.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2026
The various techniques let researchers understand which brain regions control what functions, and how tissues and tasks get impacted by different activities, say, when a person tries to multitask.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
