EGAVE

impetus

About 4.25 uses per million words.

Meaning

  1. noun Anything that impels; a stimulating factor.
    The outbreak of World War II in 1939 gave a new impetus to receiver development.
  2. noun A force, either internal or external, that impels; an impulse.
  3. noun The force or energy associated with a moving body; a stimulus.
  4. noun A principle of motive force, held as equivalent to weight times velocity by John Buridan, in an auxiliary theory of Aristotelian dynamics introduced by John Philoponus, describing projectile motion against gravity as linear until it transitions to a vertical drop and the intellectual precursor to the concepts of inertia, momentum and acceleration in classical mechanics.
  5. noun An activity in response to a stimulus.

Similar words

impulsion impulse drift energy propulsion incitation incitement propelling push speed

Often followed by

to for of from and in was by behind

Word family

impetuses

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