Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Impulsive |
ImpulsiveAdjective1. Proceeding from natural feeling or impulse without external stimulus; "an impulsive gesture of affection". 2. Without forethought; "letting him borrow her car was an impulsive act that she immediately regretted". 3. Having the power of driving or impelling; "a driving personal ambition"; "the driving force was his innate enthusiasm"; "an impulsive force". 4. Determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; "a capricious refusal"; "authoritarian rulers are frequently capricious"; "the victim of whimsical persecutions". 5. Characterized by undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation; "a hotheaded decision"; "liable to such impulsive acts as hugging strangers"; "an impetuous display of spending and gambling"; "madcap escapades"; (`brainish' is archaic). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "impulsive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Synonyms: ImpulsiveSynonyms: brainish (adj), capricious (adj), driving (adj), hotheaded (adj), impetuous (adj), madcap (adj), tearaway(a) (adj), unprompted (adj), whimsical (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Excitability | Impulsive, impetuous, passionate; uncontrolled, uncontrollable; ungovernable, irrepressible, stanchless, inextinguishable, burning, simmering, volcanic, ready to burst forth, volatile. |
Impulse | Adjective: extemporaneous, impulsive, indeliberate; snap; improvised, improvisate, improvisatory; unpremeditated, unmeditated; improvise; unprompted, unguided; natural, unguarded; spontaneous; (voluntary); instinctive. |
Adjective: impelling; Verb: impulsive, impellent; booming; dynamic, dynamical; impelled; Verb: | |
Motive | Adjective: impulsive, motive; suasive, suasory, persuasive, persuasory, hortative, hortatory; protreptical; inviting, tempting; Verb: suasive, suasory; seductive, attractive; fascinating; (pleasing); provocative; (exciting). |
Necessity | Involuntary, instinctive, automatic, blind, mechanical; unconscious, unwitting, unthinking; unintentional; (undesigned); impulsive. |
Rashness | Hot-blooded, hotheaded, hotbrained; headlong, headstrong; breakneck; foolhardy; harebrained; precipitate, impulsive. overconfident, overweening; venturesome, venturous; adventurous, Quixotic, fire eating, cavalier; janty, jaunty, free and easy. |
Reasoning, | Adjective: intuitive, instinctive, impulsive; independent of reason, anterior to reason; gratuitous, hazarded; unconnected. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Impulsive |
| English words defined with "impulsive": acting out ♦ brainish ♦ driving ♦ giddiness ♦ hammer, hotheaded ♦ impetuous, impetuously, impulsively ♦ madcap ♦ silliness ♦ tearaway, To wear one's heart upon one's sleeve ♦ unprompted ♦ Whim shaft. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "impulsive": Boasting ♦ Impulsive Behavior, impulsive count, impulsive disturbance, impulsive interference, impulsive noise, impulsive sound. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Impulsive" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. German (impulsively). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I tend to be impulsive in these matters like the time I asked Virginia Woolf to marry me. (Carrington; writing credit: Christopher Hampton; Michael Holroyd) I'm rash and impulsive. It's a flaw. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) Note to self: impulsive definitely does not work for me. (Gilmore Girls; writing credit: Povl Erik Carstensen; Sebastian Dorset) | |
Song Titles | Impulsive (performing artist: Wilson Phillips) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Tangled Tale | Carroll, Lewis | To young impulsive hearts, like hers, disappointment is always a bitter pill. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Many people who are binge eaters say that being angry, sad, bored, or worried can cause them to binge eat. Impulsive behavior (acting quickly without thinking) and certain other emotional problems can be more common in people with binge eating disorder. (references) | |
Williams syndrome is a rare, congenital (present at birth) disorder characterized by physical and developmental problems including an impulsive and outgoing (excessively social) personality, limited spatial skills and motor control, and intellectual disability (i.e., developmental delay, learning disabilities, mental retardation, or attention deficit disorder). (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Impulsive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.51% of the time. "Impulsive" is used about 205 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.51% | 204 | 21,327 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.49% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 205 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "impulsive": Impulsive Behavior ♦ impulsive count ♦ impulsive disturbance ♦ impulsive interference ♦ impulsive noise ♦ impulsive sound. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "impulsive": impulsive-obsessive. | |
Ending with "impulsive": over-impulsive. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
impulsive behavior | 14 |
impulsive | 12 |
disorder impulsive | 7 |
child impulsive | 5 |
buying impulsive | 3 |
impulsive control disorder | 3 |
behavior child impulsive | 3 |
impulsive spending | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "impulsive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | impulsiv, i rrëmbyer (brusque, fractious, heady, hot-headed, impetuous, precipitate, precipitous, rapt, short tempered, tempestuous), i menjëhershëm (immediate, instant, instantaneous, momentary, prompt, quick, rapid). (various references) | |
Arabic | مندفع (dashing, precipitate, running, rushing), متهور (audacious, blind, blindfold, blindfolded, brash, careless, daredevil, daredevilry, desperate, devil may care, excessive, extravagant, foolhardy, harum scarum, hasty, headlong, heady, heedless, hot-headed, immaterial, impetuous, impish, imprudent, inconsiderate, light-headed, madcap, precipitate, precipitous, rash, reckless, slapdash, temerarious, too hasty, unrestrained, unwary), نابض (graphic, graphical, palpitant, pulsatile, pulsatory, pulsing, spring, thrilling), تلقائي (automatic, automatical, automatism, involuntary, spontaneous, unprompted), دفعي (propulsive), دافع (advocate, apologize, assert, buckler, champion, cushion, defend, guard, guard against, hold off, impetus, impulse, inducement, motive, object, payer, projectile, propellant, propeller, propulsive, repulsive, score, stand for, stick up for, urge, vindicate). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | тласкащ (propulsive), импулсивен, движещ (driving, motive). (various references) | |
Chinese | 怦 , 冲动性. (various references) | |
Czech | impulzivní, spontánní (spontaneous, unasked, unwilled). (various references) | |
Danish | impulsiv, letbevægelig. (various references) | |
Dutch | luchtig (airily, airy, airy-fairy, flighty, fresh, gaunt, lean, loose, recent, sandy, slender, thin), luchthartig (airily, flighty). (various references) | |
Esperanto | facilanima (flighty). (various references) | |
Farsi | کسیکه ازروی انگیزه نی عمل میکند. (various references) | |
Finnish | hetken mielijohteesta toimiva. (various references) | |
French | impulsif. (various references) | |
German | impulsiv (heady, impetuous, impulsively, volatile). (various references) | |
Greek | κινητήριος (locomotor), παρορμητικόσ (incentive), παρορμητικός, ωθητικός, αυθόρμητοσ (spontaneous, unprompted), ορμητικόσ (brash, dashing, heady, impetuous, vehement). (various references) | |
Hebrew | פזיז (careless, fickle, harebrained, hasty, headlong, impetuous, nimble, precipitous, rash, slapdash, slaphappy), פרצ י, אימפולסיבי, "חפו י. (various references) | |
Hungarian | impulzív, fogékony (acceptant, apt, biddable, docile, impressionable, receptive, recipient, responsive, sensitive, susceptible). (various references) | |
Italian | impulsivo (fitful, impulse-). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 衝動的 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しょうどうてき. (various references) | |
Korean | 충동 (urge). (various references) | |
Manx | gyn thort (headlong, headstrong, inconsiderate, inconsideration, maladroit, snap, unconsidered), breeoil (active, active as person, brisk, buoyant, buoyant of market, cogent, dynamic, energetic, essential, fizzy, forceful, go ahead, purposeful, red-blooded, strenuous, valid, vibrant, vigorous). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | impulsiveay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | impulsivo (impellent, madden, passionate, warm blooded). (various references) | |
Romanian | impulsiv (violent). (various references) | |
Russian | импульсивный. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | impulsivan, nagao (hasty, hotspur, impetuous, precipitant, precipitate, precipitatious, rude, rush, sudden, temerarious). (various references) | |
Spanish | impulsivo (hot-headed, impulse). (various references) | |
Swedish | impulsiv (impervious, impetuous). (various references) | |
Turkish | itici (projectile, propellent, propelling, propulsive, pusher, pushing, repellent, repelling, repugnant, repulsive, unattractive, unlikable, unlikeable, unlovely, unprepossessing), dürtücü (challenging), düşünmeden hareket eden, düşüncesiz (blind, blindfold, brusque, careless, flighty, freewheeling, gauche, half-baked, headfirst, headforemost, headlong, heady, ill-advised, ill-judged, imprudent, incautious, inconsiderate, indiscreet, injudicious, mindless, out of turn, rash, reckless, slapdash, tactless, thoughtless, unadvised, unmindful, unreflecting, unthinking, wanton, without tact, witless). (various references) | |
Ukranian | імпульсивний (temperamental), спонукальний (impellent, incentive, inductive, motive). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | đẩy tới (propellant, propellent, propelling, propulsive, seesaw), đẩy mạnh bốc đ"ng thôi thúc. (various references) | |
Welsh | byrbwyll (rash). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Old English | 450-1100 | hatheort. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "impulsive": impulsively, impulsiveness, impulsivenesses. (additional references) | |
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"Impulsive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: emulsive, impulsif. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "impulsive" (pronounced i'mpu"lsiv) |
| 7 | -m p u" l s i v | compulsive. |
| 6 | -p u" l s i v | repulsive. |
| 5 | -u" l s i v | convulsive. |
| 3 | -s i v | abrasive, abusive, adhesive, aggressive, allusive, apprehensive, aversive, coercive, cohesive, collusive, comprehensive, conclusive, conducive, corrosive, counteroffensive, decisive, defensive, depressive, derisive, discursive, dismissive, dispersive, divisive, effusive, elusive, erosive, evasive, excessive, exclusive, expansive, expensive, explosive, expressive, extensive, hypertensive, illusive, impassive, impressive, incisive, inclusive, inconclusive, indecisive, inexpensive, inoffensive, intrusive, invasive, massive, missive, nonexclusive, nonresponsive, obsessive, obtrusive, offensive, oppressive, passive, pensive, permissive, persuasive, pervasive, possessive, progressive, recessive, reclusive, reflexive, regressive, repressive, responsive, submissive, subversive, successive, unimpressive, unobtrusive, unresponsive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-i-l-m-p-s-u-v" | |
-2 letters: implies, impulse, milieus, mislive. | |
-3 letters: impels, milieu, mislie, muesli, pelvis, pileum, pileus, plumes, simile, simple. | |
-4 letters: evils, ileum, ileus, ilium, impel, impis, ivies, lieus, limes, limps, lives, lumps, miles, mules, pilei, piles, pilis, pilus, plies, plume, plums, pules, pulis, pulse, slime, slipe, slump, smile, speil, spiel, spile, spume, veils, velum. | |
-5 letters: elms, emus, evil, impi, imps, isle, leis, lies, lieu, lime, limp, lipe, lips, lisp, live, lues, lump, lums, luvs, mels, mile, mils, mise, mule, muse, pies, pile, pili, plie, plum, plus, pule, puli, puls, semi, simp, sipe, slim, slip, slue, slum, spiv, spue, sump, supe, umps, veil, vies, vile, vims, vise. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-i-l-m-p-s-u-v" | |
+2 letters: impulsively. | |
+3 letters: imperviously. | |
+4 letters: impulsiveness, impulsivities. | |
+5 letters: compulsivities. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 6D 70 75 6C 73 69 76 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).. -- .--. ..- .-.. ... .. ...- . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01101101 01110000 01110101 01101100 01110011 01101001 01110110 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I m p u l s i v e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 006D 0070 0075 006C 0073 0069 0076 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)437982877885758871 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
