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Definition of "impetus" []

  • An impelling force; an impulse. (noun)
  • The force or energy associated with a moving body. (noun)
  • Something that incites; a stimulus. (noun)
  • Increased activity in response to a stimulus: The approaching deadline gave impetus to the investigation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "impetus" in a sentence
  • "While progress derived its main impetus from the sex-passion, and the highest emotions were those that held us together in the family relation, such education and such surroundings as fostered and intensified these emotions were naturally the best."
  • "Where I differ from Einstein is that he conceives this quantity which I call the impetus as merely expressing the characters of the space and time to be adopted and thus ends by talking of the gravitational field expressing a curvature in the space-time manifold."
  • "Every possible stone needs to be turned to ensure that money resting idly in bank accounts is put to better use in the context of the short term impetus that the economy requires."