impel
verb
Simple meaning
Urge or force to an action.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihmpehlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪmˈpɛl
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Urge or force (a person) to an action; constrain or motivate
transitive
To urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation.
Cause to move forward with force
transitive
To drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Urge or force (a person) to an action; constrain or motivate
Used this way, impel is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: urge or force (a person) to an action
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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.