Definify.com
Definition 2024
impactful
impactful
English
Adjective
impactful (comparative more impactful, superlative most impactful)
- Having impact. [from c. 1940]
- 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
Antonyms
Derived terms
References
- 1 2 “impactful”, Brians, Paul Common Errors in English Usage, (2nd Edition, November 17, 2008), William, James & Company, 304 pp., ISBN 978-1-59028207-6
- impactful at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Historical usage frequency at Google books