| English Dictionary |
POTENT
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does potent mean?
• POTENT (adjective)
The adjective POTENT has 4 senses:
1. having great influence
2. having or wielding force or authority
3. having a strong physiological or chemical effect
4. (of a male) capable of copulation
Familiarity information: POTENT used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having great influence
Synonyms:
potent; powerful
Similar:
influential (having or exercising influence or power)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having or wielding force or authority
Synonyms:
potent; strong
Context example:
providing the ground soldier with increasingly potent weapons
Similar:
powerful (having great power or force or potency or effect)
Derivation:
potency (the power or right to give orders or make decisions)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having a strong physiological or chemical effect
Synonyms:
Context example:
a stiff drink
Similar:
equipotent (having equal strength or efficacy)
multipotent (able to many things)
Also:
effective; effectual; efficacious (producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect)
fertile (capable of reproducing)
powerful (having great power or force or potency or effect)
Attribute:
effectiveness; potency; strength (capacity to produce strong physiological or chemical effects)
Antonym:
impotent (lacking power or ability)
Derivation:
potency (capacity to produce strong physiological or chemical effects)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(of a male) capable of copulation
Synonyms:
potent; virile
Antonym:
impotent ((of a male) unable to copulate)
Derivation:
potency (the state of being potent; a male's capacity to have sexual intercourse)
Context examples
The UV light proved to be a potent ingredient.
(Cooking up Alien Atmospheres on Earth, NASA)
Their improved leaf, which would use carbon dioxide — a potent greenhouse gas — from the air, would be at least 10 times more efficient than natural leaves at converting carbon dioxide to fuel.
(Artificial Leaves Convert CO2 to Fuel 10 Times More Efficient Than Nature, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The team found that one very potent compound known as VU041 rapidly blocked Kir1 channel activity.
(Novel insecticide blocks mosquitoes’ ability to urinate, NIH)
It is primarily created by photosynthesis and represents a long-term storage reservoir for atmospheric CO2, a potent greenhouse gas.
(Ancient molecules from the sea likely burst into the air from ocean waves, National Science Foundation)
Acetazolamide is a potent inhibitor of carbonic anhydrase that plays an important role in the control of fluid secretion.
(Acetazolamide Sodium, NCI Thesaurus)
Methane is one of the three most potent greenhouse gases and traps up to 34 times more heat compared with carbon dioxide.
(Amazon trees are major source of methane emission, SciDev.Net)
From 2014 to 2015, levels of the potent greenhouse gas methane increased substantially faster than from 2007 to 2013.
(Warming due to carbon dioxide jumped by half in 25 years, NOAA)
Gram-negative bacteria produce molecules called lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that are potent activators of innate immune signaling.
(Researchers connect brain blood vessel lesions to intestinal bacteria, NIH)
A closer look revealed a reduction in the function of the enzyme eNOS that is responsible for producing nitric oxide (NO), a potent signal for blood vessels to dilate.
(Hold the salt: gut reaction may impair the brains of mice, National Institutes of Health)
They hope their findings will eventually lead to the development of a potent, broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory therapeutic.
(Natural lipid acts as potent anti-inflammatory, National Institutes of Health)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"The low fig can be climbed by everyone." (Albanian proverb)
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