impetus
Americannoun
-
a moving force; impulse; stimulus.
The grant for building the opera house gave impetus to the city's cultural life.
- Synonyms:
- boost, spur, stimulation
-
(broadly) the momentum of a moving body, especially with reference to the cause of motion.
noun
-
an impelling movement or force; incentive or impulse; stimulus
-
physics the force that sets a body in motion or that tends to resist changes in a body's motion
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of impetus
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin: “an attack,” literally, “a rushing into,” perhaps by haplology from unattested impetitus (though the expected form would be unattested impetītus; see appetite), equivalent to impetī-, variant stem of impetere “to attack” ( im- im- 1 + petere “to make for, assault”) + -tus suffix of verb action
Explanation
An impetus is the force behind something, whether it's a boulder rolling down a hill or a person making a decision. Very little would get done if there were no such thing as an impetus: an impetus is some kind of force that gets something or somebody moving. If you push a car that's out of gas, you're the impetus that's getting it moving. An impetus doesn't have to be physical. Advertisers hope their commercials will be an impetus to buy the product.
Vocabulary lists containing impetus
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Remarks at the Dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center," Vocabulary from the speech
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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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.
Some of the impetus behind her bill revolved around the June 2 Fresno City Council election.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 2, 2026
But if that were the impetus at the beginning, it’s not the case now.
From Slate • Jun. 29, 2026
This removes some of the impetus behind shares in that space.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 25, 2026
Asked if he has entered the World Cup with added impetus, Bellingham smiled as he replied: "A little bit - I think I've got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, haven't I?"
From BBC • Jun. 18, 2026
I felt veneration for St. John—veneration so strong that its impetus thrust me at once to the point I had so long shunned.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
