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impact

/ˈɪmpækt/noun, verb

impact is spelled I-M-P-A-C-T. The wrong spelling people search most is inpact: about 200 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 88 of all searches for the word. Impact is a noun meaning “The striking of one body against another; collision”. The plural of impact is impacts.

How many letters and syllables are in impact?

Letters6: I-M-P-A-C-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing83 times per million words; the 1,272nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, inpact, about 200 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell impact?

Impact is spelled I-M-P-A-C-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 87 of the searches for impact in either form.

impactthe right spelling17,290 searches a month
inpactn in place of m200 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is impact?

Impact appears 83 times per million words in written English, the 1,272nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce impact?

  • /ˈɪmpækt/

As a verb (“To collide or strike, the act of impinging”): /ɪmˈpækt/.

Impact has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-impact_(noun).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-impact_(verb).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of impact

  • impacts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • impacting participle, present
  • impacted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does impact mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The striking of one body against another; collision.

  2. 2

    The force or energy of a collision of two objects.

    The hatchet cut the wood on impact.

  3. 3

    A forced impinging.

    His spine had an impingement; L4 and L5 made impact, which caused numbness in his leg.

  4. 4

    proscribedA significant or strong influence or effect.

    His friend's opinion had an impact on his decision.

verb

  1. 1

    To collide or strike, the act of impinging.

    When the hammer impacts the nail, it bends.

  2. 2

    To compress; to compact; to press into something or pack together.

    The footprints of birds do not impact the soil in the way those of dinosaurs do.

  3. 3

    proscribedTo significantly or strongly influence or affect; to have an impact on.

    I can make the changes, but it will impact the schedule.

  4. 4

    rareTo stamp or impress onto something.

    Ideas impacted on the mind.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Impact in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchimpact, choc, collision (a collision), affecter, toucher (to influence)
GermanAufprall, Einschlag, Aufschlag (a collision), einschlagen, zusammenstossen, kollidieren (to collide or strike)
Portugueseimpacto, impacte (a collision)
Spanishincidir (to influence), impactar (to collide or strike), impacto (the force or energy of a collision of two…), efecto, consecuencia (a significant or strong influence)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does impact come from?

Attested since the 17th century, from Latin impāctus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after impact