Library / English Dictionary

POWER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Physical strength

Synonyms:

might; mightiness; power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

strength (the property of being physically or mentally strong)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Possession of controlling influence

Example:

his powerfulness was concealed by a gentle facade

Synonyms:

power; powerfulness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Attribute:

powerless (lacking power)

powerful (having great power or force or potency or effect)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

effectiveness; effectivity; effectuality; effectualness (power to be effective; the quality of being able to bring about an effect)

veto (the power or right to prohibit or reject a proposed or intended act (especially the power of a chief executive to reject a bill passed by the legislature))

discretion; free will (the power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies)

disposal (the power to use something or someone)

jurisdiction; legal power ((law) the right and power to interpret and apply the law)

control (power to direct or determine)

repellant; repellent (the power to repel)

influence (a power to affect persons or events especially power based on prestige etc)

sway (controlling influence)

chokehold; stranglehold; throttlehold (complete power over a person or situation)

interest; interestingness (the power of attracting or holding one's attention (because it is unusual or exciting etc.))

irresistibility; irresistibleness (the quality of being overpowering and impossible to resist)

persuasiveness; strength (the power to induce the taking of a course of action or the embracing of a point of view by means of argument or entreaty)

puissance (power to influence or coerce)

preponderance (superiority in power or influence)

valence; valency ((biology) a relative capacity to unite or react or interact as with antigens or a biological substrate)

valence; valency ((chemistry) a property of atoms or radicals; their combining power given in terms of the number of hydrogen atoms (or the equivalent))

effectiveness; potency; strength (capacity to produce strong physiological or chemical effects)

Antonym:

powerlessness (the quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and feeble)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done

Example:

danger heightened his powers of discrimination

Synonyms:

ability; power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

cognition; knowledge; noesis (the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning)

Attribute:

able ((usually followed by 'to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

faculty; mental faculty; module (one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind)

superior skill (more than ordinary ability)

hand (ability)

accomplishment; acquirement; acquisition; attainment; skill (an ability that has been acquired by training)

science; skill (ability to produce solutions in some problem domain)

originality (the ability to think and act independently)

creative thinking; creativeness; creativity (the ability to create)

capacity; mental ability (the power to learn or retain knowledge; in law, the ability to understand the facts and significance of your behavior)

bilingualism (the ability to speak two languages colloquially)

aptitude (inherent ability)

intelligence (the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience)

leadership (the ability to lead)

know-how (the (technical) knowledge and skill required to do something)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself

Synonyms:

exponent; index; power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

mathematical notation (a notation used by mathematicians)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

degree (the highest power of a term or variable)

log; logarithm (the exponent required to produce a given number)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A state powerful enough to influence events throughout the world

Synonyms:

great power; major power; power; superpower; world power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

body politic; commonwealth; country; land; nation; res publica; state (a politically organized body of people under a single government)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

hegemon (a leading or paramount power)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A very wealthy or powerful businessman

Example:

an oil baron

Synonyms:

baron; big businessman; business leader; king; magnate; mogul; power; top executive; tycoon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

businessman; man of affairs (a person engaged in commercial or industrial business (especially an owner or executive))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

oil tycoon (a powerful person in the oil business)

Sense 7

Meaning:

One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority

Example:

the forces of evil

Synonyms:

force; power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

causal agency; causal agent; cause (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

Moloch (a tyrannical power to be propitiated by human subservience or sacrifice)

influence (one having power to influence another)

juggernaut; steamroller (a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Energy made available by the flow of electric charge through a conductor

Example:

The power went oout around midnight

Synonyms:

electrical energy; electricity; power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

energy; free energy ((physics) a thermodynamic quantity equivalent to the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

AC; alternating current; alternating electric current (an electric current that reverses direction sinusoidally)

DC; direct current; direct electric current (an electric current that flows in one direction steadily)

signal (an electric quantity (voltage or current or field strength) whose modulation represents coded information about the source from which it comes)

Sense 9

Meaning:

(physics) the rate of doing work; measured in watts (= joules/second)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

physical phenomenon (a natural phenomenon involving the physical properties of matter and energy)

Domain category:

natural philosophy; physics (the science of matter and energy and their interactions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

electric power; electrical power; wattage (the product of voltage and current)

waterpower (the power to do work that is latent in a head of water)

Derivation:

power (supply the force or power for the functioning of)

Sense 10

Meaning:

(of a government or government official) holding an office means being in power

Example:

the power of the president

Synonyms:

office; power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("power" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Domain category:

administration; governance; governing; government; government activity (the act of governing; exercising authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "power"):

executive clemency (the power (usually of a president or governor) to pardon or commute the sentence of someone convicted in that jurisdiction)

war power (an extraordinary power exercised (usually by the executive branch) in the prosecution of a war and involving an extension of the powers that the government normally has in peacetime)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Supply the force or power for the functioning of

Example:

The gasoline powers the engines

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "power" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "power"):

drive (cause to function by supplying the force or power for or by controlling)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

power ((physics) the rate of doing work; measured in watts (= joules/second))

Credits

 Context examples: 

My uncle says nothing, but I am sure he will do everything in his power to get you made.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Issue associated with the device and/or device components being un-associated in such a way that fluid, gas, power or signal information may not be transferred from one to another.

(Decoupling Medical Device Problem, Food and Drug Administration)

He can see in the dark—no small power this, in a world which is one half shut from the light.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Only, as we had no power to anchor and dared not beach her till the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our hands.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He seems consuming with the tremendous power that is in him and that seems never to have found adequate expression in works.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The power of retaining and recalling past experience, something that is remembered.

(Memory, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of measurement equal to 10 to the twelfth power of the number of entities per unit of volume equal to one liter.

(Million per Microliter, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

I did not think I should tremble in this way when I saw him, or lose my voice or the power of motion in his presence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Don't raise your voice, for they have long ears—sharp eyes, too, but no power of scent, so far as I could judge, so I don't think they can sniff us out.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The unit of concentration expressed as the number of 10 to the sixth power copies in unit volume equal to one milliliter.

(Million Copies per Milliliter, NCI Thesaurus)