Meaning & use
impaler
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Meanings
nouncountableliterary
A person who kills or punishes others by driving a sharp stake or spike through their body.
Grammar: Takes a: an impaler; plural impalers.
Patterns
- the impaler of someone
The ruler was known to his enemies as the Impaler.
Historians argue about how many victims the medieval impaler really had.
In the novel, the impaler left terrible warnings along the road.
nouncountablerare
Something that pierces through an object, such as a spike used to hold papers or food.
Grammar: Rare and mainly humorous or technical for a spike.
Patterns
- an impaler for something
The cook used a metal impaler to hold the meat over the fire.
An old office impaler held a stack of receipts.
Word forms
| plural | impalers |
|---|
Common combinations
- Vlad the Impaler
- Vlad the Impaler ruled in the fifteenth century.
- feared impaler
- The feared impaler terrified neighboring lands.
- medieval impaler
- The medieval impaler appears in many legends.
- notorious impaler
- The notorious impaler was finally defeated.
Synonyms and how they differ
- executioner
- An executioner kills as an official, by any method, while an impaler uses a stake.
- torturer
- A torturer causes pain, but not necessarily to kill.
- spearman
- A spearman is a soldier who fights with a spear and not someone who punishes.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: impaler or impala?
impaler vs impala
An impala is an African antelope and has nothing to do with piercing.
Practice
Vlad the Impaler earned his nickname because he ___.
Choose one answer.
Impaler comes from impale, to pierce with a stake. The other options have no link to the name.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “impaler”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.