impetus

American  

[im-pi-tuhs] / ˈɪm pɪ təs /

noun

• impetuses
  plural

1. a moving force; impulse; stimulus.

   The grant for building the opera house gave impetus to the city's cultural life.

   Synonyms:

   boost, spur, stimulation

2. (broadly) the momentum of a moving body, especially with reference to the cause of motion.

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impetus British  

/ ˈɪmpɪtəs /

noun

1. an impelling movement or force; incentive or impulse; stimulus

2. physics the force that sets a body in motion or that tends to resist changes in a body's motion

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• impetuses
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

impetus impetuses

Still, this is probably the strangest rebrand we’ve seen so far, partly because there was no public impetus for such a visible change.

From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026

And the decision to send out Hull and Woad first in both the morning foursomes and the afternoon fourballs failed to deliver the impetus Europe's captain Nordqvist would have hoped for.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

Khanal said the disaster underlined the "impetus and urgency" needed to build data-sharing mechanisms to help warn of future disasters, noting that neighbouring China had shared key data after the flood.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

European banks may not receive quite the same impetus from mega IPOs and the AI capex bonanza as their U.S. counterparts but this is reflected in the significantly lower valuations attached to them.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

I was poised for flight, but I was waiting for some event, some word, some act, some circumstance to furnish the impetus.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

One of the big impetuses for this is I felt like the kids are the experts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2024

“That was one of the impetuses for starting this film.”

From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2022

“If the desire to repair self-worth is one of the impetuses for status consumption, then providing individuals alternate means to restore their self-worth should alleviate this need,” the researchers concluded.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2019

Now this “half a kid” has a kid, and has said one of the impetuses for “Can’t Stop” was to write music his son could listen to.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2016

The result is output far exceeding what is usually possible under Traditional Management, because drawbacks are removed and impetuses added.

From The Psychology of Management The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching and Installing Methods of Least Waste by Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Related Words

• catalyst
• impulse
• incentive
• momentum
• motivation
• stimulant