![]() ![]() After all, that's exactly what happened to such formerly-odious words as won't, upcoming, and finalize. It's likely that hatred for impactful will fade over time, and you'll be able to use it without fear of being pummeled or snorted at. If those you're communicating with are distracted by your use of a hated word, then your ability to communicate is limited. And it's for that reason alone that you might want to avoid it. ![]() dynamic A synonym for impactful that is similarly a bit of a buzzword is dynamic. For example: Fortunately, the savings from our new banking program were substantial. Substantial has a variety of meanings, including of real worth, value, or effect. But since when does English like to limit itself? Synonyms abound, and most of them avoid the opprobrium that impactful endures.ĭespite all of these refutations, though, the opprobrium remains: impactful is a word despised by many. One synonym for this meaning of impactful is substantial. Words like impressive, effective, and affecting can all be used in various contexts to do the job that impactful does. People also object to impactful on the basis of its occupancy of a space already filled by other words. By the early 1970s (when Liberman first finds hints of disdain for the word), it was being used in major media outlets, especially in arts and music reviews.Īnd it's not that the term migrated to business and marketing jargon later in current use Liberman finds it mostly in sports writing, but also in writing about music, the arts, politics, and science.Īnother complaint leveled at impactful is that it's not a well-formed word: -ful means "full of," and impactful does not mean "full of impact."īut -ful doesn't only mean "full of." It also means (among other things) "characterized by," as in playful and tasteful. As linguist Mark Liberman pointed out on Language Log, the word was first used in the 1950s and 1960s in contexts dealing with political theory, literary criticism, and clinical psychology before expanding into fashion and the arts. It's also accused of being a heinous product of business and marketing jargon. ![]() Brace yourself, for 'impactful' is indeed a word. ![]()
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