power
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/
ipa: /ˈpaʊ̯.ə/
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈpʰaə]
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈpʰaː]
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈpʰɑː]
ipa: /ˈpaʊ̯.ɚ/
ipa: /ˈpaʊ̯ɹ/
ipa: [ˈpʰaʊ̯ɚ]
ipa: [ˈpʰaʊ̯ɹ]
ipa: /ˈpæʊ̯.ə/
ipa: [ˈpʰæʊ̯ə]
ipa: [ˈpæɔ̯ə]
ipa: [ˈpʰɛəː]
ipa: /ˈpaʊ̯.(ə)ɹ/
ipa: [p(ʰ)äʊ̯(ə)ɹ]
ipa: /ˈpʌʊ̯.(ə)ɹ/
ipa: [p(ʰ)əw(ə)ɹ]
rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)
rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)
Forms: form: powers
form: powre
Etymology: From Middle English power, poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, from Latin posse, whence English potent. Compare French pouvoir. Displaced the native Old English anweald.
Senses: examples: text: He has lost the power to speak.
text: On June 8, 1872, the London & North Western Railway obtained powers to quadruple its main line, and a new tunnel was bored for the up and down slow lines.
ref: 1950 September, “Network News: Watford Tunnel, L.M.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 641:
text: If it is spirits who have power to suffer, it seems they would also have active powers to think and will.
ref: 2018, Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God, page 74:
glosses: The ability to do or undergo something.
examples: text: The proportion of female colleagues in the Hsinchu County Government and its affiliated units has reached 61%. “Women Power” is the power behind over half of the services provided by the county government.
ref: 2022 March 8, “Magistrate Yang Wen-ke Sends Female Staff in Hsinchu County Government Roses for Their Contributions”, in HsinChu County Government, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2022:
qualifier: social
glosses: The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
examples: text: the power of the written word
text: An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book II:
text: Thwackum, on the contrary, maintained that the human mind, since the fall, was nothing but a sink of iniquity, till purified and redeemed by grace.[…]The favourite phrase of the former, was the natural beauty of virtue; that of the latter, was the divine power of grace.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III:
text: No matter how different we appear, we're all the same in our struggle against the powers of evil and darkness. I hope that this day will always be a day of joy in which we can reconfirm our dedication and our courage and more than anything else, our love for one another. This is the promise of the Tree of Life.
ref: 1978 November 17, 1:30:50 from the start, in The Star Wars Holiday Special (Science Fiction), spoken by Carrie Fisher, →OCLC:
text: Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present.
ref: 1998, Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now:
qualifier: social
glosses: The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
The ability to affect or influence.
examples: text: He's nominally president, but he does not have any real power.
text: “[…] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. Her own father recognised it when he bereft her of all power in the great business he founded. […]”
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
text: The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. [...] We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
ref: 1949, George Orwell [pseudonym; George Orwell], Nineteen Eighty-Four:
text: In the face of expanding federal power, California in particular struggled to maintain control over its Chinese population.
ref: 2005 April, Columbia Law Review:
text: It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.
ref: 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
qualifier: social
glosses: The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
The ability or authority to control, govern, command, coerce, etc., such as in a legal, political or business sphere.
qualifier: social
glosses: The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
The people in charge of legal or political power, the government.
synonyms: powers that be
examples: text: In the 19th century, Britain and France were major colonial powers.
text: Britain is no longer the maritime power that it once was.
text: Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.
ref: 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:
qualifier: social
glosses: The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
A strong or influential nation, company, or other such body.
examples: text: The threatning words of duke Robert comming at the last to king Henries eares, caused him foorthwith to conceiue verie sore displeasure against the duke, in so much that he sent ouer a power of men into Normandie, which finding no great resistance, did much hurt in the countrie, by fetching and carieng spoiles and preies.
ref: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:
text: Then when our powers in points of ſwords are ioin’d
And cloſde in compaſſe of the killing bullet,
Though ſtraite the paſſage and the port be made,
That leads to Pallace of my brothers life,
Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
qualifier: social
glosses: The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
An army, a military force.
examples: text: He needed a lot of power to hit the ball out of the stadium.
glosses: Strength, energy.
Physical force or strength.
examples: text: She's a power shopper; she knows all the best deals.
text: This high-spec computer is ideal for power users.
glosses: Strength, energy.
Designating one who does something forcefully or on a large or grand scale.
examples: text: The power to haul the train is supplied by two huge locomotives.
glosses: Strength, energy.
The production or flow of energy providing means to do work; energy per time unit.
examples: text: After the pylons collapsed, this town was without power for a few days.
text: “My father had ideas about conservation long before the United States took it up.[…]You preserve water in times of flood and freshet to be used for power or for irrigation throughout the year. […]”
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
text: [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: Strength, energy.
Electricity or a supply of electricity.
examples: text: The kilowatt is a unit of power, equivalent to 1,000 joules of energy per second.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Strength, energy.
The rate at which work is done or energy is transferred, expressed in units of energy per unit of time.
examples: text: We need a microscope with higher power.
glosses: Strength, energy.
The strength by which a lens or mirror magnifies an optical image.
examples: text: do a power of good
text: Don't you mind my snuffling a little—becuz we're in a power of trouble.
ref: 1872, Mark Twain, chapter XLVII, in Roughing It:
text: what a power of languages he knew
ref: 1918, Henry Kitchell Webster, “The White Arc”, in Everybody's Magazine, volume XXXVIII, number Five:
text: All the other children are making a power of noise
ref: 1944/5, Dylan Thomas, Twenty Years a-Growing (filmscript (unfinished)), published 1964:
text: "There'd be a power of horses down there on the parade ground, wouldn't there ?"
ref: 2002, William Magan, Soldier of the Raj, page 161:
text: each word costing her a power of pain
ref: 2020, Laura Carlin, Requiem for a Knave:
qualifier: dated outside the phrase 'power of good'
glosses: A large amount or number.
examples: text: the mechanical powers
glosses: Any of the elementary forms or parts of machines: three primary (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley) and three secondary (the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw).
examples: text: The set I'm making right now needs a power on it, but we don't have any tractors left in the yard.
qualifier: trucking
glosses: A tractor.
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A measure of the effectiveness that a force producing a physical effect has over time. If linear, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the displacement of or in an object) ÷ time. If rotational, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the angle of displacement) ÷ time.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): xⁿ, read as "x to the power of n" or the like, is called a power and denotes the product x×x×⋯×x, where x appears n times in the product; x is called the base and n the exponent.
topics: mathematics
sciences
set-theory
glosses: Cardinality.
topics: mathematics
sciences
statistics
glosses: The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.
topics: biblical
lifestyle
religion
glosses: In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme.
qualifier: quiz bowl
glosses: A bonus point awarded for answering correctly before a certain part of the tossup is read.
Synonyms: sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: aptitude
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: arm
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: authority
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: capability
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: capacity
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: clout
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: command
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: competence
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: competency
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: control
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: dominion
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: energy
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: force
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: grip
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: hold
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: influence
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: main
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: mastery
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: might
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: muscle
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: potency
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: pull
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: sinew
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: strength
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: sway
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: vigor
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: wald
sense: Terms synonymous with one or more senses of power (noun)
word: weight
word: disposition
word: potence
word: power
word: virtue
Derived terms: A-B power
active power
agripower
airpower
antipower
atomic power
auxiliary power unit
axiom of power set
Axis power
balance of power
Banzhaf power index
bargaining power
battery power
biopower
bipower
black power
bottom power
brainpower
broken power law
brown power
buying power
candlepower
candle power
civil power
clean power
combined cycle power plant
come to power
cone of power
copower
corridors of power
counterpower
cyberpower
dirty power
donkey power
donkeypower
do the power of good
duckpower
earning power
earnings power
effective radiated power
electric power transmission
electropower
eye power
fire-power
firepower
firm power
Five Power Defence Arrangements
flower power
formal power series
girl power
gray power
great power
grey power
ground power
gunpower
hard power
higher power
high-power
horsepower
horse power
horse-power
hydroelectric power
hydropower
hyperpower
inherent power
in power
kilikili power
knowledge is power
labor power
labour power
low-power
lung power
lung-power
manpower
market power
micropower
middle power
military power
mindpower
more power to someone
more power to your elbow
more power to your arm
motive power
motive power depot
multipower
necropower
noise power
nonfirm power
nonpower
non-powerlike
nuclear power
nuclear power plant
nuclear power station
omnipower
optical power
people power
perfect power
personpower
person-power
pester power
phantom power
Planck power
police power
poor power
powerable
power adapter
power adaptor
power alley
power animal
power assist
power-associative algebra
power balance
powerball
power ballad
powerband
power bank
powerbank
power bar
power base
power behind the throne
power board
powerboat
powerbomb
power bottom
power box
power breakfast
power brick
power-broker
power broker
powerbroking
power bump
power button
power cable
power car
power center
power centre
power chain
powerchair
power charger
power chord
power clean
power cod
power coffee
power consumption
power cord
Power County
power couple
power creep
power cut
power-cycle
power cycle
power dissipation
power distance
power dive
power domain
power down
power-dressed
power dresser
power dressing
power drill
power dynamics
power egg
power-egg
power electronics
power equation
power excursion
power factor
power failure
power fantasy
power feminism
Power Five
power forward
Power Four
powerful
power function
power gamer
power gap
power grab
power grid
power hand
power harrow
powerhead
power hitter
power hockey
powerholder
powerholding
power hour
powerhouse
power house
power-hungry
power-intensive
power interruption
power in the land
power inverter
powerish
powerism
powerist
power jam
power kerosene
power kite
power laces
power law
powerlaw
power lead
powerless
power level
powerlevel
powerlifter
powerlifting
powerlike
power-line
power-line communication
power line communication
powerline
power line
power loom
power lunch
power metal
power mic
power mike
power mod
powermonger
power move
power nap
power noise
power of appointment
power of attorney
power of suggestion
power of termination
power of the pencil
power of the purse
power of yet
poweroid
power-operated
power outage
power pack
power pill
power plant
powerplay
power play
power point
power pole
power-political
power politician
power politics
power pop
power posing
power projection
power puller
power rack
power rule
power satellite
power saw
power scaling
power screw
power series
power set
powersharing
power-sharing
power sharing
powershift
power shovel
powerslam
powerslash
power slide
power snack
powersome
power source
powersport
powersports
power spot
power station
power steering
powers that be
power strip
power stroke
power structure
power struggle
power suit
power supply
power surge
power take-off
power tap
power tie
power tiller
power to gas
power tool
power toothbrush
power top
power tower
powertrain
power train
power transmission line
power trio
power trip
power-tripper
power-tripping
powertrip
power-trip
power trowel
power unit
power-up
power user
power vacuum
powerviolence
power-walk
power walk
powerwalk
power wall
powerwash
power wash
powerwasher
power wheel
power window
power word
powery
predictive power
protecting power
pulling power
purchasing power
purchasing power parity
Puretic power block
pussy power
reactive power
refractive power
regional power
relocatable power tap
residual power
resolving power
rest in power
running powers
sea power
seapower
sharp power
shore power
sleeping power
smart power
social power
soft power
solar power
spacepower
space power system
speak truth to power
specific power
spending power
split-phase power
statistical power
staying power
steam power
stopping power
storage power station
subpower
superpower
super power
talk truth to power
technopower
thermal design power
thermopower
tidal power
to the power of
T-power
ultrapower
uninterruptible power source
uninterruptible power supply
unpower
warpower
water power
wave power
white power
will-power
will power
willpower
will to power
will-to-power
wind power
windpower
womanpower
world power
Related terms: word: possible
word: potent
word: successor
sense: addition, summation
english: addend; total
translation: addend; total
alt: augend
word: + =
sense: addition, summation
english: sum
translation: sum
alt: summand
word: + +... =
sense: subtraction
roman: subtrahend
english: difference
translation: difference
word: − =
sense: multiplication, factorization; multiplier
roman: multiplicand
english: product
translation: product
word: × =
sense: multiplication, factorization; factor
english: factor; factor; product
translation: factor; factor; product
word: × ×... =
sense: division; dividend
roman: quotient
word: ÷ =
sense: numerator) / (denominator) = (quotient
english: with remaining
translation: with remaining
alt: quotient
word: Or sometimes
sense: exponentiation; base
english: power
translation: power
alt: exponent
word: =
sense: root extraction; degree
roman: radicand
word: √ =
sense: logarithmization
english: logarithm
translation: logarithm
alt: antilogarithm
word: log(base) =
word: skill