impulsion
/ɪmˈpʌlʃ(ə)n
/noun
1A strong urge to do something: the impulsion of the singers to govern the pace...
- Man feels the same impulsion, but he knows that he is free to acquiesce or to resist.
- Moreover, the Romantic painter's impulsion to take risks, eloquently discussed in Anita Brookner's Romanticism and its discontents, throws valuable light on Berlioz's use of rhetoric.
1.1 [mass noun] The motive or influence behind an action or process: attitudes changed under the impulsion of humanitarian considerations...
- I would like to believe that we are all driven by some spiritual impulsion of which we are perhaps not even aware.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'the action or an instance of impelling'): via Old French from Latin impulsio(n-), from the verb impellere (see impel).