impotent
Americanadjective
-
not potent; lacking power or ability.
-
utterly unable (to do something).
-
without force or effectiveness.
- Synonyms:
- weak, feeble, ineffective, ineffectual
-
lacking bodily strength or physically helpless.
-
(of a male) unable to attain or sustain a penile erection.
-
(especially of a male) sterile.
-
Obsolete. without restraint.
noun
adjective
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(when postpositive, often takes an infinitive) lacking sufficient strength; powerless
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(esp of males) unable to perform sexual intercourse See erectile impotence
-
obsolete lacking self-control; unrestrained
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of impotent
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin impotent-, stem of impotēns “without power over oneself or others”; equivalent to im- 2 + potent 1
Explanation
Impotent means lacking power or authority. Captain Bligh was impotent in the face of Christian's mutiny. It also refers to a man's inability to achieve or maintain an erection. If a man is sterile, or unable to reproduce, he is also called impotent. Those wacky ancients really knew how to mess with you — simply add the prefix im to the front of potent, which means "powerful," and you get its opposite — "powerless." While Viagra can help when the problems are physiological, an impotent leader has lost his ability to govern. No little blue pill will dig him out of that hole. It can also allude to a certain meaninglessness, such as the music critic who wrote that the easy listening genre of pop was so dull as to be "the soundtrack to impotence."
Vocabulary lists containing impotent
"Marigolds," Vocabulary from the short story
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Unwind
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Born a Crime
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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.
The goalkeeper watched as it dropped in, as impotent in the moment as any of the visiting support.
From BBC • May 10, 2026
In statistical terms, they were two of the most impotent attacking displays by any Premier League team this season.
From BBC • Feb. 11, 2026
Rendered impotent by domestication, she’ll do anything to influence human events.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 28, 2025
The hit film, based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, promotes themes of female empowerment and resistance against a grifting, impotent entertainer posing as an all-powerful being.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 27, 2024
Browne lived in a world in which what we would call facts seemed impotent when faced with authority.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
