impactful

impactful

English

Etymology

From impact +‎ -ful

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpæktfəl/, /ɪmˈpæktfəl/

Adjective

impactful (comparative more impactful, superlative most impactful)

1. Having impact. [from c. 1940]
   • 1950, Movies: A Psychological Study‎, Digitized edition, Free Press, published 2008, page 22:

     We might suppose that some of the most impactful heroines of current films would combine these two functions: that of the good-bad girl ...

   • 1969, W. James Popham, "Curriculum Materials," Review of Educational Research, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 321:

     It is strongly recommended that in the future such investigations not be reported in the literature unless they are designed to test the effects of some hopefully impactful treatment variation.

   • 1982, S. E. Taylor and S. C. Thompson, "Stalking the Elusive 'Vividness' Effect," Psychological Bulletin, vol. 89, no. 2, p. 155:

     Everyone knows that vividly presented information is impactful and persuasive.

   • 2001, A. Mukherjee and W. D. Hoyer, "The Effect of Novel Attributes on Product Evaluation," The Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 28, no. 3, p. 463:

     A dominant finding in psychology and consumer behavior has been that negative information is more impactful than positive information.

   • 2013 March 22, “Pals organise night out to remember Florence”, in West Sussex Gazette:

     “The evening will help to raise money to create a place where children can have fun and enjoy playing for years to come; a fitting legacy of a short-lived but impactful life."

Usage notes

• Proscribed by some authorities, who recommend “influential” or “effective” instead.[1] Alternatively, one may rephrase to “have an impact” or “have a strong impact”. However, many usages can be found, particularly in business and education[1] as well as in journalism and academic writing.
• Usage is more common in the US.

Synonyms

• effectual, impactive, consequential, significant, eventful

Antonyms

• impactless

Derived terms

• impactfully
• impactfulness

Translations

having impact

Portuguese: impactante

References

1. “impactful” in Paul Brians, Common Errors in English Usage, 2nd rev. and exp. edition, Wilsonville, Or.: William, James & Company, 2009, ISBN 978-1-59028-207-6.

• impactful at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Historical usage frequency at Google books