stimulus.
The plural is "stimuli." This word has not traditionally made a native-English plural, but a few writers have nevertheless experimented with *"stimuluses" — e.g.:
o "The octopus is meant not to symbolize industry or productivity, but as an example of the kind of visual stimuluses [read 'stimuli'] that America is producing." Robert W. Duffy, "Ceos' Tentacles Embrace Arts," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 28 July 1996, at C4.
o "'You can get [gross domestic product] up, you can get it to appear to be growing strongly. But if you have structural impediments in the system, those stimuluses [read 'stimuli'] are transitory.'" Greg Ip, "Greenspan Says Japan, Europe Face 'Rigidities,'" Wall Street J. Europe, 20 Nov. 2002, at UKA 3 (quoting Alan Greenspan).
Language-Change Index — *"stimuluses" for "stimuli": Stage 3.
*Invariably inferior forms.
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Quotation of the Day: "Modern society is especially susceptible to clichés . . . for the reason that, where meaning has in so many places been undermined, men and women swim about in choppy waters, desperately reaching out for something to keep themselves afloat." Joseph Epstein, The Middle of My Tether 45 (1983).
