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.
Surging demand for power from data centers certainly has impacted inflation, raising energy costs for companies and household electricity bills and adding 5 to 10 basis points to both core and headline inflation statistics.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
The email, seen by news service PA, also said that those whose personal information had been impacted would be informed directly.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Meanwhile, the most sensitive sectors such as agriculture, and funds for regional development were the least impacted with reductions of only three percent.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
Redistricting had impacted the home Greene-Placentia shared with her husband, so she found another place to stay within Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
There is other supporting research that shows how learning, memory, and decision making get impacted by an overloaded brain.
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.
