Impactful is one of those words that somehow arouse intense disdain, especially among editors and other would-be guardians of English. According to its critics, the word exemplifies “bad, ugly usage.” They call it “barbarous,” dismiss it as “a meaningless buzzword,” and hate it so much that they extend their contempt of the word to contempt for its users. Some justify their scorn by saying that the word lacks the original meaning of the suffix
-ful —“full of”— as in
remorseful or
wrathful. But impactful, when it entered English in the mid-1960s, was formed and construed in the same way as other well-established adjectives ending in
-ful. In fact, as the
Oxford English Dictionary points out, the “full of” sense is considerably weakened in a large number of these
-ful adjectives. Instead, the suffix is interpreted as “having” or “characterized by,” as in
beautiful, lawful, or
graceful. In other common adjectives,
-ful can even be glossed as “causing feelings of,” as in
wonderful and
dreadful . Both of these senses of
-ful work perfectly well with the noun
impact. The aversion to impactful is reinforced by the distaste some people have for its root
impact, especially when that word is used as a verb. (See usage note at
impact ). But if impactful is indeed derived from the verb rather than the noun—which is not a certainty—there is nothing ungrammatical about that. When added to a verb,
-ful has the meaning “apt to” or “able to,” as in
mournful, wakeful, forgetful, and
worshipful. Impactful may eventually settle into the language in similar fashion. In sum, impactful entered English as a normal part of language growth and change, and there is no legitimate linguistic reason to reject it. Although there are alternative words available, English welcomes synonymy. And although the negative reactions to impactful may well be further encouraged by a sense that it is commonly found in so-called business-speak or other jargon-filled contexts, in truth the word, from its beginnings, has also been recorded in reputable newspapers, magazines, academic journals, and books. Nevertheless, the very fact that so many people have passionate, unyielding objections to impactful makes it advisable to think twice before using it in contexts where it might not be accepted. Perhaps its variant
impactive, with exactly the same meaning, is less likely to raise hackles. However, the “-ive” form appears in print only about one-fourth as often as the controversial impactful.
