impulse

Other forms of impulse

plural

impulses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about impulse

What does impulse mean?

impulse means "an instinctive motive". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in impulse?

impulse has 2 syllables: im-pulse. The stress falls on "im". In IPA it is /ˈɪmpəls/.

What is another word for impulse?

Close synonyms include urge, caprice, whim, nerve impulse, nervous impulse. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is impulse a common word?

impulse is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.