IMPOTENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does impotence mean? 

• IMPOTENCE (noun)
  The noun IMPOTENCE has 2 senses:

1. the quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and feeble

2. an inability (usually of the male animal) to copulate

  Familiarity information: IMPOTENCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPOTENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and feeble

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

impotence; impotency; powerlessness

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

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

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

helplessness; impuissance; weakness (powerlessness revealed by an inability to act)

unpersuasiveness (inability to persuade)

uninterestingness (inability to capture or hold one's interest)

voicelessness (having no voice in the management or control of affairs)

paper tiger (the nature of a person or organization that appears powerful but is actually powerless and ineffectual)

ineffectiveness; ineffectuality; ineffectualness (lacking the power to be effective)

Derivation:

impotent (lacking power or ability)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An inability (usually of the male animal) to copulate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

impotence; impotency

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

infertility; sterility (the state of being unable to produce offspring; in a woman it is an inability to conceive; in a man it is an inability to impregnate)

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

ED; erectile dysfunction; male erecticle dysfunction (impotence resulting from a man's inability to have or maintain an erection of his penis)

Antonym:

potence (the state of being potent; a male's capacity to have sexual intercourse)

Derivation:

impotent ((of a male) unable to copulate)

 Context examples 

Whether it was merely the expelled breath, or his consciousness of his growing impotence, I know not, but his throat vibrated with a deep groan.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It is a direct-acting smooth muscle relaxant used in the treatment of impotence and as a vasodilator, especially for cerebral vasodilation.

(Papaverine, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

But this was a luxury of sensation that could not endure; I became fatigued with excess of bodily exertion and sank on the damp grass in the sick impotence of despair.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A method used to treat impotence (inability to have an erection).

(Medicated urethral system for erection, NCI Dictionary)

It may also cause bronze skin, diabetes, pain in the joints and abdomen, tiredness, and impotence.

(Hemochromatosis, NCI Dictionary)

Clinical signs include impotence, intermittent claudication, diminished femoral pulses and cold, pallid lower extremities.

(Leriche Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

Male patients may develop gynecomastia and impotence.

(Estrogen-Producing Adrenal Cortex Adenoma, NCI Thesaurus)

Penile implants are used to treat erectile dysfunction or impotence.

(Penile implant, NCI Dictionary)

Also called impotence.

(Erectile Dysfunction, NCI Dictionary)

Signs and symptoms include a round face, upper body obesity, fragile and thin skin, purple stretch marks in the skin, fatigue, muscle weakness, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypertrichosis and amenorrhea in women, impotence in men, and osteoporosis.

(Cushing syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)