POWER

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does power mean? 

• POWER (noun)
  The noun POWER has 10 senses:

1. possession of controlling influence

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

3. possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done

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

5. one possessing or exercising power or influence or authority

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

7. physical strength

8. a state powerful enough to influence events throughout the world

9. energy made available by the flow of electric charge through a conductor

10. a very wealthy or powerful businessman

  Familiarity information: POWER used as a noun is familiar.

• POWER (verb)
  The verb POWER has 1 sense:

1. supply the force or power for the functioning of

  Familiarity information: POWER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POWER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Possession of controlling influence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

power; powerfulness

Context example:

his powerfulness was concealed by a gentle facade

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

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

Attribute:

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

powerless (lacking power)

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

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)

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)

Antonym:

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

Sense 2

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 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

ability; power

Context example:

danger heightened his powers of discrimination

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)

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

originality (the ability to think and act independently)

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)

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

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

office; power

Context example:

the power of the president

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)

Sense 5

Meaning:

One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

force; power

Context example:

the forces of evil

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"):

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

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

influence (one having power to influence another)

Sense 6

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

exponent; index; power

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 7

Meaning:

Physical strength

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

might; mightiness; power

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

strength (the property of being physically or mentally strong)

Sense 8

Meaning:

A state powerful enough to influence events throughout the world

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

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

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 9

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

electrical energy; electricity; power

Context example:

The power went oout around midnight

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 10

Meaning:

A very wealthy or powerful businessman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

an oil baron

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)

• POWER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they power    ... he / she / it powers   
Past simple: powered   
Past participle: powered   
-ing form: powering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Supply the force or power for the functioning of

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

The gasoline powers the engines

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))

 Context examples 

We shall be glad to serve you in any way in our power, but we cannot cross the desert.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Device problems related to problems with the underlying framework, systems, and processes of an organization (e.g. as building power supply, network, oxygen systems).

(Device Infrastructure Failure Evaluation Conclusion, Food and Drug Administration)

When once my affections are placed, it is not in the power of anything to change them.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I thought (foolish wretch!) that it might be in my power to restore happiness to these deserving people.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Laurie thought that the task of forgetting his love for Jo would absorb all his powers for years, but to his great surprise he discovered it grew easier every day.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The process of declining from a higher to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential quality.

(Degeneration, NCI Thesaurus)

Our only chance of safety lay in making a clean job of it, said he, and he would not leave a tongue with power to wag in a witness-box.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A device that experienced problems due to a loss in the power supply.

(Device Loss of Power Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)

I really do sometimes think that you have powers that are not human.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All this was the manifestation of power.

(White Fang, by Jack London)