impetus
Americannoun
plural
impetuses-
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
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; 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.
Instead, “Undertone” is like getting to the climactic moment of your favorite horror podcast, only to have the terrifying impetus interrupted by a Squarespace ad.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026
Thales HO 0.39%increase; green up pointing triangle said more generous European defense budgets would boost sales this year and beyond, as fresh Middle East turmoil adds new impetus to a booming European defense sector.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 3, 2026
That is part of the impetus behind his new book, “The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2026
Geopolitics are also helping to improve economic conditions abroad, providing impetus for currencies to strengthen against the dollar.
From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026
Laila learned eventually that the impetus for this transformation was an eighteen-year-old boy whose attention Giti had caught.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
