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impaction

noun

Simple meaning

Failure of a tooth to erupt into the dental arch, because of adjacent teeth, dense overlying bone, excessive soft tissue, or other factor.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihmpakshuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪmˈpækʃən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. medicine

    A solid, immobile bulk of stool.

  2. dentistry

    Failure of a tooth to erupt into the dental arch, because of adjacent teeth, dense overlying bone, excessive soft tissue, or other factor.

  3. Compression; the packing together of loose matter.

  4. education

    The situation where an educational institute, usually a college or university, receives more applications from qualified applicants than the number of spaces available, meaning that meeting the minimum admission requirements does not guarantee acceptance.

  5. Something packed together tightly; a mass of densely-packed matter

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (dentistry) Failure of a tooth to erupt into the dental arch, because of adjacent teeth, dense overlying bone, excessive soft tissue, or other factor.

Used this way, impaction is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Critical but measured

Nearby words

  • impacted tooth , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Failure / disorder

food impaction

Compression / packed

stone impaction

Solid

stool impaction

Other combinations

fecal impactioninertial impactionfaecal impactionimpaction syndromeimpaction fracture

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • fecal impactionnounCompound term

    Accumulation of hardened feces in the rectum or lower colon which the person cannot move.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: solid or immobile bulk of stool

impacted toothRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.