: a sudden spontaneous inclination or incitement to some usually unpremeditated action
b
: a propensity or natural tendency usually other than rational
2
a
: a wave of excitation transmitted through tissues and especially nerve fibers and muscles that results in physiological activity or inhibition see nerve impulse
b
: the act of driving onward with sudden force : impulsion
motive implies an emotion or desire operating on the will and causing it to act.
a motive for the crime
impulse suggests a driving power arising from personal temperament or constitution.
buying on impulse
incentive applies to an external influence (such as an expected reward) inciting to action.
a bonus was offered as an incentive
inducement suggests a motive prompted by the deliberate enticements or allurements of another.
offered a watch as an inducement to subscribe
spur applies to a motive that stimulates the faculties or increases energy or ardor.
fear was a spur to action
goad suggests a motive that keeps one going against one's will or desire.
thought insecurity a goad to worker efficiency
Example Sentences
Noun He has to learn to control his impulses. the new auto factory was just the impulse that the local economy needed
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
But the revelation of atrocities in the liberated villages muffled any celebratory impulse in the bunker. Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2022 Replacing the impulse to scroll with something else is a small but vital first step, as is checking your instincts about popular opinion with your less online friends.WIRED, 8 Sep. 2022 That impulse has lessened, but hasn’t ceased: A group of US military advisers recently warned in a report on the aerospace industrial base (pdf) that China could outpace the US in a matter of decades. Tim Fernholz, Quartz, 2 Sep. 2022 The weight of history — including artists’ personal histories, California’s history and the impulse to revisit, reimagine and revise history — was one of them.Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2022 However, Didymos will still be approximately 11 million kilometers (about 6.8 million miles) from Earth and the impulse of energy that DART delivers to Dimorphos is low. Julia Musto, Fox News, 26 Aug. 2022 The entire street and adjacent streets have felt the impulse given by the award of that contact, so that the vicinity of the theater has been entirely changed within the last eighteen months.San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Aug. 2022 Photos of Buechner at his farm, staring dreamily into the distance with a pipe in his mouth, reinforce this impulse by suggesting a bygone era. John Blake, CNN, 21 Aug. 2022 But this impulse is wrongheaded, not because animals lack amazing abilities but because evolution doesn’t produce a hierarchy in which some species are more advanced, or rank higher, than others. Marlene Zuk, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Aug. 2022
Verb
With a wide variety of sizes, there's something for just about everyone, from the heads of large households to impulse shoppers at gas stations to parents packing kids' school lunches every morning. Danielle Wiener-bronner, CNN, 14 July 2022 Across six movies and massive advances in visual effects technology, Hollywood has been wrestling with a version of that same craven because-they-can impulse. Peter Debruge, Variety, 8 June 2022 According to Gyllander, her audience doesn’t want to impulse-buy products algorithmically served to them between wedding photos. Leah Prinzivalli, Outside Online, 22 Apr. 2020 Cutler, who frequently posts on the group, says that a lot of posts are from people who have recently impulse-purchased chickens, not knowing what to do with them, and that a lot of the birds being put up for sale are clearly sick.Dallas News, 22 Apr. 2020 Women displayed way more brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, the region that deals with decision making, focus and impulse control. Caroline Picard, Good Housekeeping, 8 Aug. 2017 See More