different between jolt vs impact

English

Etymology

Perhaps from Middle English jollen (“to stagger, knock, batter”), itself perhaps a variant of Middle English chollen (“to strike, juggle, do tricks”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??lt/, IPA^(key): /d???lt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?o?lt/
• Rhymes: -?lt, -??lt

Verb

jolt (third-person singular simple present jolts, present participle jolting, simple past and past participle jolted)

1. (transitive) To push or shake abruptly and roughly.

   The bus jolted its passengers at every turn.

2. (transitive) To knock sharply
3. (transitive) To shock (someone) into taking action or being alert

   I jolted her out of complacency.

4. (transitive) To shock emotionally.

   Her untimely death jolted us all.

5. (intransitive) To shake; to move with a series of jerks.

   The car jolted along the stony path.

Derived terms

• jolter
• jolthead
• jolting
• joltproof
• jolty

Translations

Noun

jolt (plural jolts)

1. An act of jolting.
2. A surprise or shock.
3. (slang) A long prison sentence.
4. (slang) A narcotic injection.

Coordinate terms

• (prison sentence): bit

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From Latin imp?ctus, perfect passive participle of imping? (“dash against, impinge”).

Pronunciation

• (noun): enPR: im?p?kt, IPA^(key): /??mpækt/
• (verb): enPR: im-p?kt?, IPA^(key): /?m?pækt/
• • Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

impact (countable and uncountable, plural impacts)

1. The striking of one body against another; collision.
2. The force or energy of a collision of two objects.

3. (chiefly medicine) A forced impinging.

4. A significant or strong influence; an effect.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "impact": social, political, physical, positive, negative, good, bad, beneficial, harmful, significant, great, important, strong, big, small, real, huge, likely, actual, potential, devastating, disastrous, true, primary.
• The adposition generally used with "impact" is "on" (such as in last example in section above)
• There are English speakers who are so averse to the verb sense that they have become hypersensitive to the use of the figurative noun sense, with a low threshold for labeling such use as overuse (cliché). In defensive editing, the solution is to replace the figurative noun sense with effect and the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. (Rarely, a phrase such as "the impact of late effects" is better stetted to avoid "the effect of [...] effects".)

Derived terms

Related terms

• impinge

Translations

Verb

impact (third-person singular simple present impacts, present participle impacting, simple past and past participle impacted)

1. (transitive) To collide or strike, the act of impinging.

   When the hammer impacts the nail, it bends.

2. (transitive) 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. (transitive, proscribed) To influence; to affect; to have an impact on.

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

4. (transitive, rare) To stamp or impress onto something.

   Ideas impacted on the mind.

Usage notes

Some authorities object to the verb sense of impact meaning "to influence; to affect; to have an impact on". Although most verbification instances in English draw no prescriptive attention, a few do, including this one. To avoid annoying those readers who care, one can replace the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. See also the usage note for the noun sense.

Derived terms

• impaction
• impactor

Translations

French

Etymology

From Latin, see above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.pakt/

Noun

impact m (plural impacts)

1. (literally or figuratively) impact

Further reading

• “impact” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Etymology

From French impact, from Latin impactus.

Noun

impact n (plural impacturi)

1. impact

Declension