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Definition of "stimulus" []

  • Something causing or regarded as causing a response. (noun)
  • An agent, action, or condition that elicits or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response. (noun)
  • Something that incites or rouses to action; an incentive: "Works which were in themselves poor have often proved a stimulus to the imagination” ( W.H. Auden). (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 "stimulus" in a sentence
  • "* -- Here we place any reaction which is a repetition of any previous stimulus from amongst the ten next preceding, at the same time placing * repetition of preceding stimulus* under a separate heading."
  • "If the quantity of sensorial power remains the same, and the quantity of stimulus be lessened, a weakness of the fibrous contractions ensues, which may be denominated _debility from defect of stimulus_."
  • "President Obama avoided the term "stimulus" last night in his speech before Congress."