Impress

How to spell impress

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce impress

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does impress mean?

1. verbTo make someone feel admiration or respect through a quality or achievement.
2. verbTo fix something firmly in the mind, or to press a mark into a surface.

Impress in a sentence

• The candidate hoped to impress the interview panel with her portfolio.

• The teacher worked hard to impress the safety rules on every pupil.

• A tidy garden can impress prospective buyers within seconds.

• The machine can impress a serial number onto each metal plate.

Where does impress come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin imprimere, formed from the prefix in- meaning 'into' or 'upon' and the verb premere meaning 'to press'. The literal sense was to press one thing into or onto another, as a seal is pressed into hot wax to leave a mark. English took the word in the late 1300s, partly through Old French, and from the start it carried both the physical idea of stamping a mark and the figurative idea of fixing something firmly in the mind. By the 1600s the modern social meaning, to stir admiration in someone, had grown out of that figurative sense: a strong impression had been made. The same premere root sits inside press, pressure, and print, which is why imprimere also gave us the printing term 'imprint'. Remembering the single m in im- helps with the spelling, since the prefix is just in- adjusting to the p that follows.

How the word is built

• im- (in, into)
• press (to press, from Latin premere 'to press')