powerful
Americanadjective
-
having or exerting great power or force.
- Antonyms:
- weak
-
physically strong, as a person.
a large, powerful athlete.
-
producing great physical effects, as a machine or a blow.
-
potent; efficacious.
a powerful drug.
-
having great effectiveness, as a speech, speaker, description, reason, etc.
- Synonyms:
- effective, cogent, forcible, convincing, influential
-
having great power, authority, or influence; mighty.
a powerful nation.
-
Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. great in number or amount.
a powerful lot of money.
adjective
-
having great power, force, potency, or effect
-
extremely effective or efficient in action
a powerful drug
a powerful lens
-
dialect large or great
a powerful amount of trouble
adverb
Related Words
Powerful, mighty, potent suggest great force or strength. Powerful suggests capability of exerting great force or overcoming strong resistance: a powerful machine like a bulldozer. Mighty, now chiefly rhetorical, implies uncommon or overwhelming strength of power: a mighty army. Potent implies great natural or inherent power: a potent influence.
Other Word Forms
- overpowerful adjective
- overpowerfully adverb
- overpowerfulness noun
- powerfully adverb
- powerfulness noun
- quasi-powerful adjective
- quasi-powerfully adverb
- superpowerful adjective
- ultrapowerful adjective
- unpowerful adjective
Etymology
Origin of powerful
First recorded in 1350–1400, powerful is from the Middle English word powarfull. See power, -ful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Cruises are big business / I don’t personally like them, but I need to serve a useful purpose,” she speaks in a quietly forceful tone, adding “It’s a powerful boat for a powerful mind.”
As AI demand grows and applications become more powerful, that boosts the need for memory and storage components.
From MarketWatch
Viewers don’t just want pretty celebrities, powerful superheroes and recycled ideas; they want truly memorable shared experiences.
From Salon
Nato did not intervene but its most powerful member the US was able to help mediate.
From BBC
Beyond liver fibrosis, the research also demonstrates how phenotype-based screening can reveal powerful and unexpected drug partnerships that may be hiding in plain sight.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
