stimulus

noun

Simple meaning

An external phenomenon that has an influence on a system, by triggering or modifying an internal phenomenon.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

stimyuhluhs

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈstɪmjələs

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

An external phenomenon that has an influence on a system, by triggering or modifying an internal phenomenon; for example, a spur or incentive that drives a person to take action or change behaviour.
botanyentomology
A stinging part on the body of a plant or insect.
physiologypsychologymedicine
Something external that elicits or influences a physiological or psychological activity or response, or that affects any of the sensory apparatuses.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Formality: Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An external phenomenon that has an influence on a system, by triggering or modifying an internal phenomenon; for example, a spur or incentive that drives a person to take action or change behaviour.

Used this way, stimulus 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: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use stimulus

“The news provided a stimulus for the debate on climate change.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

conditioned stimulusstimulus controlstimulus generalizationexternal stimulusvisual stimulusstimulus intensitynew stimuluspowerful stimulus

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

stimulus generalisationnounCompound term
Transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus.
stimulus generalizationnounCompound term
Transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus.
conditioned stimulusnounCompound term
The stimulus that is the occasion for a conditioned response.
discriminative stimulusnounCompound term
A stimulus that provides information about what to do.
negative reinforcing stimulusnounCompound term
A reinforcing stimulus whose removal serves to decrease the likelihood of the response that produced it.
negative stimulusnounCompound term
A stimulus with undesirable consequences.

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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.