impuissance

American  

[im-pyoo-uh-suhns, im-pwis-uhns, im-pyoo-is-uhns] / ɪmˈpju ə səns, ɪmˈpwɪs əns, ˌɪm pjuˈɪs əns /

noun

1. the fact or quality of being impuissant, or weak and ineffectual; powerlessness.

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Explanation

When faced with a situation when you need to act, sometimes you freeze. That feeling is called impuissance, when you’re unable to make a move because you feel like you have no power. Thinking about world hunger, nuclear war, climate change, and vocabulary may inspire feelings of despair, like there’s nothing to be done and you might as well give up. Bless the French, because they came up with a single word that means exactly that: impuissance. It literally means “not powerful,” and feeling powerless is the key ingredient in impuissance. It’s tricky to pronounce, but imagine you’re in France and try it this way: im-PWIS-since. You’ll feel more powerful in no time.

Example Sentences

Now that economic impuissance appears to be more a permanent condition than a passing crisis, diCorcia’s series feels increasingly eschatological, as if America had passed directly from Eden to the Last Judgment.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 4, 2015

I was answered by the groaning of the torrent beneath my feet, and the maniac laugh of the eagle that soared majestically over my head—both seeming to mock the impuissance of man.

From The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains by Reid, Mayne

Why is it I dare   Think but lightly of such impuissance?

From Robert Browning: How to Know Him by Phelps, William Lyon

I knew, impotent as I was, that I could play it—I could feel the sense of power tingling through my own impuissance.

From The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography by Murray, David Christie

Why is it I dare Think but lightly of such impuissance? what stops my despair?

From Browning and the Dramatic Monologue by Curry, S. S. (Samuel Silas)