MEANING
1. Something that encourages activity, development, or growth in a person, organization, or economy.
2. An event or condition that prompts a physical or psychological response in an organism.
Use it for
describing a spur to economic activity; identifying something that encourages further inquiry; distinguishing a proposed stimulus from proof of its effectDistinguishes a spur to activity from a particular event or condition that prompts a bodily or psychological response. Writing functions: Causation / Relationships, Research / Methodology.
Words that belong together
- an economic stimulus
- a stimulus to growth
- provide a stimulus
On the page
The unexpected finding provided a stimulus to further research rather than a final answer.
The paper evaluates whether the spending package acted as a stimulus to local demand.
Participants saw the same visual stimulus, but their reported responses varied.
The study distinguishes the stimulus from the instructions explaining how to respond.
Word forms
- Base
- stimulus
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Usage notes
Count noun: stimulus; irregular plural stimuli. Economic use can also be uncountable. Do not add stimuli as a separate entry. Register: academic. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
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