powerhouse
Americannoun
plural
powerhouses-
Electricity. a generating station.
-
a person, group, team, or the like, having great energy, strength, or potential for success.
noun
-
an electrical generating station or plant
-
informal a forceful or powerful person or thing
Usage
What does powerhouse mean? A powerhouse is a powerful, forceful, or dominant person, group, or thing.In a literal sense, a powerhouse is a station or plant that generates electricity. Although it can still be used this way, terms like power plant and power station are much more common. Powerhouse is far more commonly used in the figurative way, especially in context of sports and business.Example: Because they always win, they can always recruit the best players, which makes them a perennial powerhouse in the conference.
Etymology
Origin of powerhouse
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.
Artificial intelligence powerhouse Anthropic’s battle with the Pentagon has sparked some soul-searching in Silicon Valley that could reshape the tech sector’s complicated relationship with war and the White House.
From Los Angeles Times
See: Amazon wants to be a satellite powerhouse.
From MarketWatch
While shopping bots are already clicking “purchase,” traditional financial powerhouses are moving more cautiously.
From MarketWatch
It put Biblical Studies into a tournament semifinal against Champion Christian, a No. 1 powerhouse, ranked atop the entire NCCAA.
In concert, she’s powerful, hardly a princess of perfection but gorgeously garish, a fun and funny powerhouse provocateur, dripping in costumes, onstage audience members and sweat.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
