Some sentences from the BAWE Corpus (via Web Concordance English) to help prise apart the meanings of the related nouns effect, result, influence, impact, consequence, repercussion, outcome, fallout, aftermath, upshot, ramification, outgrowth, corollary, blowback.
effect
Correlative to cause. “The palliative and negative portions of English legislation are retained, and the positive is rejected—such are the EFFECTS of the Northern Irish compromise.”
Collins Dictionary: When something produces a change in a thing or person, don’t refer to this change as a `result’ on the thing or person. The word you use is effect.
“The EFFECT of this announcement was to spread panic among investors.”
“Outside reports also tend to focus on what is the most devastating EFFECT of the water crisis, environmental degradation.”
“To sum up, causes and EFFECTS are not real (or at least not knowable), but imagined by our mind to make sense of the observation that ‘A’ often occurs together with, or slightly before ‘B’. All we can observe are correlations, not causations.”
An effect is also the power to bring about a result, working as an influence:
“The content itself of television … is therefore less important than its EFFECT.”
result
A result of something is an event or situation that happens or exists because of it.
“The RESULT of this announcement was that the share price of the company rose by 10 per cent.”
“While the end RESULT (i.e. a cost reduction) appears to be the same, the process used to achieve that RESULT can have longer-term implications. Cooperation may reduce costs through joint improvement while heavy-handed cost pressure might force a supplier to cut corners, resulting in poor quality.”
influence
Whereas impact is of a single event, influence is extended over a period of time (reflecting the etymology of influence in emanation from the stars that acts upon one’s character and destiny, and a flow of water, a flowing in). Also the power to have an effect on people or things.
“This sums up clearly Hardy’s overall use of the Bible; his biblical allusions are primarily to describe the book’s INFLUENCE as oppressive and the cause of much suffering for Tess, and its detrimental INFLUENCE upon society”
“The INFLUENCE of the ‘Annales’ school of historical writing has been largely to place the study of war in the wider social, economic, and cultural background of the societies in which it was fought, to make war part of ‘total’ history.”
impact
The force of impression of one thing on another: a significant or major effect.
“The planning system has a big IMPACT on both the land and house market as it is responsible for restricting the total quantity and location of housing land made available.”
“A riot makes a much bigger IMPACT on government thinking.”
implication
The effect that an action or decision will have on something else in the future, with a sense of uncovering or unfolding some causal sequence or reasoning in order to see this.
“So the IMPLICATION is that non-adjustment motivated priorities have to fall by the wayside in favour of structural adjustment reforms.”
“The IMPLICATION of the evidence as a whole could be that it was only in the reign of Ecgfrith that Northumbrian overlordship embraced the Strathclyde Britons and the Scots.”
consequence
Following as an effect or result from something preceding:
“His [Pope’s] unsocial habits … were a natural CONSEQUENCE of ill-health.”
Asserting the relation of a result or effect to its cause or antecedent:
“Invariable antecedence of the cause and CONSEQUENCE of the effect.”
“He argues that a CONSEQUENCE of assuming people behave like rational economic beings is the belief that they require either reward or coercion to motivate them.”
Asserting as a logical result or inference:
“If I admitted the premises, I should readily agree in all the CONSEQUENCES drawn from them.”
repercussion
A widespread, indirect, or unforeseen effect of an act, action, or event, often unintended or undesired —usually used in plural:
“The direct effects and indirect REPERCUSSIONS of any projected action.”
“Should he go too far, the only REPERCUSSION, so long as he remains powerful, is for some of the village members to leave the village.”
“Nevertheless, attempts to define this form of ethnicity leads to the unfortunate REPERCUSSION of freezing ethnic groups into fixed categories.”
“Americans across the country are grappling with the REPERCUSSIONS of sustained high interest rates, which have been hovering just over 5% since July – the highest in decades.”
outcome
That which results from some procedure:
“Whether he or she decides to create a ‘friendly’ atmosphere or remain neutral will have an impact on the OUTCOME of the proceedings.”
“Many outside observers saw the events of the 1930s and early 1940s as the logical OUTCOME not only of the policies adopted after 1868 but also of long-standing socio-economic factors.”
fallout
A secondary and often lingering effect, result, or set of consequences (typically adverse or unexpected):
“The peasantry’s problems intensified in the FALLOUT to the War of the Pacific (1879-84), in which the government attempted to tighten further its fiscal grip with the aim of averting the onset of a recession.”
“Much of the resources of the state were concentrated on security and on the FALLOUT from the Troubles, south of the border.”
aftermath
A period or state of affairs following a significant (often destructive or harmful) event such as a war.
“This gave rise to a disgruntled elite class across much of North India, and when they collaborated to rise up against the company rule in the AFTERMATH of the mutiny in the company army (1857), the effects were felt in London.”
upshot
Originally, the final shot in an archery match, hence the figurative sense of end result or outcome:
“Their UPSHOT was the recognition in both Moscow and Washington of NATO’s new power, ambit, and purpose.”
“When times are bad and reactionary commodification sets in, the deleterious UPSHOT is ‘the recuperation of the avant-garde for art’.”
ramification
The possible results or offshoots growing out of an action (the branching of possibilities akin to the branching of a tree):
“These votes are non-binding, and therefore do not carry any financial RAMIFICATIONS, but may show that some investors are not happy with the compensation packages or perhaps with management.”
An extension or outgrowth of an idea, concept, etc. or a subdivision or single part of a more complex structure:
“As a RAMIFICATION of the liberal tradition of thought, utilitarianism displays certain cosmopolitan key concepts.”
Also a consequence, an implication (frequently unwelcome or problematic):
“It is as yet unclear what the personal and artistic RAMIFICATIONS will be of this global network of individuals working separately with similar tools.”
outgrowth
A development or result from a cause or some origin:
“Crime is often an OUTGROWTH of poverty.”
“A predictable OUTGROWTH of the suburb’s ever growing population will be the need for more schools.”
corollary
A proposition or state of affairs that is an immediate consequence of another:
“The COROLLARY of prosecution’s duty of disclosure is the growing obligation on the defence to disclose its case.”
“Their compartmentalisation of sex and gender was based on the reasoning that while sex is the unalterable biological difference between males and females, gender refers to different roles society subscribes to men and women. The direct COROLLARY of this was that conservative views that gender division in society was natural, that ‘biology is destiny’ and that therefore women’s subordinate position is somehow legitimate is under increasing attack.”
“These programmes of course are anathema for the New Right, reputedly leading to a dependency culture in which there is no incentive to work, with the direct COROLLARY being lack of economic dynamism.”
blowback
Unintended adverse result or repercussion:
“Although the blunders have drawn a lot of attention, many entertainers have found ways to speak out with minimal BLOWBACK.”
