impact
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
impact
▶noun /ˈɪmpakt/
- 1 the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another.
- 2 a marked effect or influence.
- 1 come into forcible contact with another object.
■ chiefly N. Amer. come into forcible contact with.
- 2 (often impact on) have a strong effect.
- 3 press firmly.
– derivatives
impactive adjective,
impactor noun.
impactive adjective,
impactor noun.
usage: Many people disapprove of the phrasal verb impact on, as in high interest rates have impacted on retail spending. This may be partly because new formations of verbs from nouns are often regarded as somehow inferior and partly because this use of impact is widely associated with business jargon, making it doubly disliked.
'impact' also found in these Oxford entries:
absorb
- airbag
- bomb
- break
- breakfall
- bruise
- brunt
- buffer
- bull bar
- cathodoluminescence
- clonk
- cluster bomb
- crash-test
- crater
- crumple zone
- cushion
- delta rays
- disintegrate
- dumdum
- ejecta
- fender
- footprint
- full
- glazed frost
- green audit
- grenade
- high-impact
- impactful
- inertia reel
- low-impact
- phut
- punch
- recoil
- repercussion
- ride
- roll
- screamer
- shock
- soft-nosed
- telescope
- torpedo
- underwhelm
- wham
- wind load
- woomph
- wound
