Stimulus
English Meaning
A goad; hence, something that rouses the mind or spirits; an incentive; as, the hope of gain is a powerful stimulus to labor and action.
- Something causing or regarded as causing a response.
- An agent, action, or condition that elicits or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response.
- Something that incites or rouses to action; an incentive: "Works which were in themselves poor have often proved a stimulus to the imagination” ( W.H. Auden).