strength
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /stɹɛŋ(k)θ/
ipa: [st̠͡ɹ̠ɛŋkθ]
ipa: [st̠͡ɹ̠ɛn̪θ]
ipa: [s̠t͡ʃɹ̥ɛn̪θ]
ipa: [st̠͡ɹ̠ɪŋkθ]
note: pre-/ŋ/ tensing
ipa: [st̠͡ɹ̠ɛɪŋkθ]
note: pre-/ŋ/ tensing
ipa: [st̠͡ɹ̠eɪŋkθ]
rhymes: -ɛŋθ
rhymes: -ɛnθ
Forms: form: strengths
Etymology: From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).
Senses: examples: text: It requires great strength to lift heavy objects.
text: Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
text: He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
antonyms: weakness
glosses: The quality or degree of being strong.
examples: text: He had the strength of ten men.
text: Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
ref: 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations:
glosses: The intensity of a force or power; potency.
examples: text: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 46:1:
text: […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […].
ref: 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66:
glosses: The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
examples: text: to play to one's strengths
text: We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.
text: The compulsion to expose, renegotiate, or reinvent the strengths and weaknesses of dance tradition offers little in its final outcome to attract the average dance-goer.
ref: 2013, Deborah Hay, My Body, The Buddhist, →ISBN, page 78:
text: Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on Twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go to that well often as an American diplomat. It’s hard to overstate the global soft power impact of America’s cultural diversity.”
ref: 2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”, in CNN:
antonyms: weakness
glosses: A positive attribute.
examples: text: Thou princely leader of our English strength,
Never so needful on the earth of France,
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: That done, dissever your united strengths,
And part your mingled colours once again;
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: An armed force, a body of troops.
examples: text: All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,
He trusted to have seis’d […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 140-143:
glosses: A strong place; a stronghold.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: The minimum ratio of the number of edges removed from a given graph to components created, over all possible removals.
Synonyms: ability
asset
capability
expertise
forte
fortitude
main
potency
power
Derived terms: bench strength
bond strength
brute strength
compressive strength
crushing strength
dielectic strength
dielectric strength
fatigue strength
feat of strength
field strength
fore-strength
full-strength
gather strength
give me strength
go from strength to strength
impact strength
industrial strength
industrial-strength
inner strength
ionic strength
measure strength
on the strength of
outstrength
party strength
peace through strength
peel strength
pillar of strength
position of strength
relative strength
retard strength
shear strength
show of strength
signal strength
strengthen
strengthening
strengthful
strengthless
strength of will
strength tester
strength training
strengthy
strike off strength
superstrength
take on strength
tensile strength
there is strength in numbers
tower of strength
ultimate strength
ultimate tensile strength
understrength
union is strength
union makes strength
unity is strength
unity makes strength
upon the strength of
wet strength
wind strength
yield strength
Related terms: strong
strongly