Definition

Noun (uncountable): The quality or state of being imputative; the tendency or act of attributing something, especially blame, responsibility, or a quality, to a person or cause.

Usage Examples

• (His habit of assigning blame without evidence.)
• (Her tendency to attribute intentions to people.)

Advanced Usage

• "to display impultativeness": to show a pattern of attributing faults or merits.
  • The manager's impultativeness caused tension in the team, as he constantly blamed individuals for problems. (He repeatedly assigned responsibility to specific people.)

Variants and Related Words

• Imputative (adj): tending to impute; attributing something (often blame) to someone.

  • His imputative remarks were not based on facts. (His remarks attributed blame without evidence.)

• Impute (verb): to attribute or ascribe something, especially fault or crime, to a person.

  • They tried to impute the failure to the new system. (They attempted to blame the system.)

Synonyms

• Attribution: the act of assigning a quality or responsibility.
• Ascription: the act of claiming something as belonging to someone.
• Blameworthiness (in negative contexts): the quality of being deserving of blame.

Related Idioms

• To lay the blame at someone's door: to attribute fault to a specific person.
  • The impultativeness of the report laid the blame at the director's door without evidence. (The report unfairly attributed blame to the director.)