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impulses

noun

plural of impulse
1
as in incentives
something that arouses action or activity the new auto factory was just the impulse that the local economy needed

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in tendencies
a habitual attraction to some activity or thing the universal, fundamental impulse of self-preservation

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of impulses What drew you to this particular location, and how did its familiarity and natural beauty inform the film’s darker impulses? — Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 19 Sep. 2026 Trendy Accents In Parravani’s experience, minimalists will often regret buying trendy accent pieces for the home in order to satisfy their impulses. — Sarah Lyon, The Spruce, 16 Sep. 2026 Candid Broads is all about new impulses or different approaches. — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 11 Sep. 2026 The piece was well-timed, a matter both of luck and basic contrarian impulses. — Michael Santoli, CNBC, 8 Sep. 2026 After all, there’s a perverse thrill in watching characters act on selfish impulses, torment a goody-two-shoes, and go a little mad with power. — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Sep. 2026 Executive functioning refers to the mental skills people use to plan, organize, focus, decide, solve problems, regulate emotions and impulses, and complete multi-step activities. — Jose Bolaños, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Aug. 2026 Electrical impulses carry our messages across those routes, with synapses serving as intersections, and chemical signals helping control the flow of traffic. — Julian Hayes Ii, Forbes.com, 23 Aug. 2026 Sigmund Freud wrote that dreams were a kind of acting-out of repressed impulses. — Veronique Greenwood, Time, 18 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impulses
  1. incentives
  2. tendencies
  3. encouragements
  4. inclinations
  5. motivations
  6. aptitudes
  7. impetuses
  8. affinities
Noun
  • Federal production incentives, layered on top of state programs like California’s AB/SB 186, are a meaningful step toward making the United States competitive and bringing production back home.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Beyond biological and nuclear threats, AI companies face harsh organizational incentives to develop AI even faster and — experts say — more recklessly.
    — Jared Perlo, NBC news, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of incentives
Noun
  • Clerc’s rationale was centered on the Houthis recent tendencies to mainly target Saudi Arabian vessels passing through the strait.
    — Glenn Taylor, Footwear News, 14 Sep. 2026
  • The whole thing plays like something concocted by an 8th grader sitting in the back of biology class and doodling movie ideas in his notebook, offering more proof that Besson has never quite risen above the juvenile tendencies of his early years.
    — Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of tendencies
Noun
  • Many folks send encouragements toward OP mom and her son, while others put heat on the other parents for sexualizing their kids’ friendship.
    — DeVonne Goode, Parents, 26 July 2026
  • All through the park, competitors and onlookers hit vapes and shout tips and encouragements into trees.
    — Calin Van Paris, Outside, 19 Mar. 2026
Definition of encouragements
Noun
  • Putin will eventually leave office, whether by death, illness, or—against all observable inclinations—stepping aside.
    — Julian G. Waller, Foreign Affairs, 7 Aug. 2026
  • People with gene variants that affect these inclinations may also be at a higher risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes, researchers found.
    — Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 28 July 2026
Definition of inclinations
Noun
  • In both films, acting is the central source of the characters’ motivations.
    — Clayton Davis, Variety, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Much is left unstated, requiring the reader to decipher character motivations.
    — Anna Mebel, JSTOR Daily, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of motivations
Noun
  • For this class, the premise is that your purpose in life lies to the intersection of your values, your aptitudes and your interests.
    — Dana Taylor, USA Today, 6 May 2026
  • This model reflects Japan’s long-standing corporate culture, which prioritizes new hires for their general potential—their aptitudes and aspirations, as opposed to their current skill sets or university majors—and then trains them on the job.
    — GRACIA LIU-FARRER, Foreign Affairs, 18 Nov. 2025
Definition of aptitudes
Noun
  • One of the main impetuses for this is that newer planes are flying further, which means airline routes are getting longer.
    — Jessica Puckett, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 June 2025
Definition of impetuses
Noun
  • The caucus will join the hundreds of other such groups centered around shared affinities and interests that exist in Congress.
    — Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2026
  • As opposed to infantile regression, the oceanic feeling can also be understood as a means of recapturing a repressed sense of relation, connection, affinities.
    — George Baker, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of affinities

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impulse
impulses
impulsion
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Cite this Entry

“Impulses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impulses. Accessed 20 Sep. 2026.

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