IMPACT
impingement, encroachment, impact
(noun) influencing strongly; “they resented the impingement of American values on European culture”
shock, impact
(noun) the violent interaction of individuals or groups entering into combat; “the armies met in the shock of battle”
impact
(noun) the striking of one body against another
impact, wallop
(noun) a forceful consequence; a strong effect; “the book had an important impact on my thinking”; “the book packs a wallop”
affect, impact, bear upon, bear on, touch on, touch
(verb) have an effect upon; “Will the new rules affect me?”
impact
(verb) press or wedge together; pack together
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
impact (countable and uncountable, plural impacts)
The striking of one body against another; collision.
The force or energy of a collision of two objects.
(chiefly, medicine) A forced impinging.
A significant or strong influence; an effect.
Usage notes
• Adjectives often applied to "impact": social, political, physical, positive, negative, good, bad, beneficial, harmful, significant, great, important, strong, big, small, real, huge, likely, actual, potential, devastating, disastrous, true, primary.
• The adposition generally used with "impact" is "on" (such as in last example in section above)
• There are English speakers who are so averse to the verb sense that they have become hypersensitive to the use of the figurative noun sense, with a low threshold for labeling such use as overuse (clichĂ©). In defensive editing, the solution is to replace the figurative noun sense with effect and the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. (Rarely, a phrase such as "the impact of late effects" is better stetted to avoid "the effect of [...] effects".)
Verb
impact (third-person singular simple present impacts, present participle impacting, simple past and past participle impacted)
(transitive) To collide or strike, the act of impinging.
(transitive) To compress; to compact; to press into something or pack together.
(transitive, proscribed) To influence; to affect; to have an impact on.
(transitive, rare) To stamp or impress onto something.
Usage notes
Some authorities object to the verb sense of impact meaning "to influence; to affect; to have an impact on". Although most verbification instances in English draw no prescriptive attention, a few do, including this one. To avoid annoying those readers who care, one can replace the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. See also the usage note for the noun sense.
Source: Wiktionary
Im*pact", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Impacted; p. pr. & vb. n. Impacting.]
Etym: [L. impactus, p. p. of impingere to push, strike against. See
Impinge.]
Definition: To drive close; to press firmly together: to wedge into a
place. Woodward.
Im"pact, n.
1. Contact or impression by touch; collision; forcible contact; force
communicated.
The quarrel, by that impact driven. Southey.
2. (Mech.)
Definition: The single instantaneous stroke of a body in motion against
another either in motion or at rest.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition