impetus
im·pe·tus/ˈɪm.pə.təs/noun
impetus is spelled I-M-P-E-T-U-S: 7 letters and 3 syllables (im·pe·tus). It appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, impetus means “Anything that impels; a stimulating factor” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of impetus is impetuses.
How many letters and syllables are in impetus?
| Letters | 7: I-M-P-E-T-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: im·pe·tus |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words; the 20,356th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is impetus?
Impetus appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,356th 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 impetus?
- /ˈɪm.pə.təs/
- /ɪmˈpiː.təs/
Impetus has 3 syllables, split im·pe·tus in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-impetus.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of impetus
- impetuses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does impetus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Anything that impels; a stimulating factor.
The outbreak of World War II in 1939 gave a new impetus to receiver development.
- 2
A force, either internal or external, that impels; an impulse.
- 3
The force or energy associated with a moving body; a stimulus.
- 4
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
An activity in response to a stimulus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Impetus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Antrieb, Schub, Anstoß, Anschub, Schwung , Triebkraft |
| Spanish | ímpetu |
| French | élan |
| Portuguese | ímpeto , impulso |
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 impetus come from?
Borrowed from Latin impetus (“a rushing upon, an attack, assault, onset”), from impetō (“to rush upon, attack”), from in- (“upon”) + petō (“to seek, fall upon”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).