Impactfulness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The characteristic of having a strong and significant influence or effect on people or situations
2. The attribute that determines the strength and significance of an influence or the extent to which an effect is felt
3. The nature or state of producing a deep or lasting impression or effect

Etymology: Impactfulness is a plain built word: the adjective "impactful" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. "Impactful" itself is formed from "impact" with "-ful", meaning full of or having the quality of. The word "impact" comes from the Latin "impactus", the past participle of "impingere", meaning to drive or push against something, which is where the physical sense of a collision comes from. English later stretched "impact" from a literal blow to a figurative force, so an impactful thing is one that strikes with a strong effect. The suffix "-ness" is one of English's oldest and most productive ways of making abstract nouns from adjectives, so "impactfulness" follows the same pattern as "usefulness" or "carefulness". The word is best understood as a derived noun whose meaning is simply the degree to which something is impactful. Its meaning is therefore transparent from its parts, and nothing about its formation is unusual.

Synonyms: influence, effectiveness

Antonyms: ineffectiveness, weakness