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View synonyms for powerful

powerful

[ pou-er-fuhl ]

adjective

  1. having or exerting great power or force.

    Synonyms: strong, forceful

    Antonyms: weak

  2. physically strong, as a person:

    a large, powerful athlete.

  3. producing great physical effects, as a machine or a blow.
  4. potent; efficacious:

    a powerful drug.

  5. having great effectiveness, as a speech, speaker, description, reason, etc.

    Synonyms: effective, cogent, forcible, convincing, influential

  6. having great power, authority, or influence; mighty:

    a powerful nation.

  7. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. great in number or amount:

    a powerful lot of money.



powerful

/ ˈpaʊəfʊl /

adjective

  1. having great power, force, potency, or effect
  2. extremely effective or efficient in action

    a powerful drug

    a powerful lens

  3. dialect.
    large or great

    a powerful amount of trouble

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


adverb

  1. dialect.
    extremely; very

    he ran powerful fast

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈpowerfulness, noun
  • ˈpowerfully, adverb
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Other Words From

  • power·ful·ly adverb
  • power·ful·ness noun
  • over·power·ful adjective
  • over·power·ful·ly adverb
  • over·power·ful·ness noun
  • quasi-power·ful adjective
  • quasi-power·ful·ly adverb
  • super·power·ful adjective
  • ultra·power·ful adjective
  • un·power·ful adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of powerful1

First recorded in 1350–1400, powerful is from the Middle English word powarfull. See power, -ful
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Synonym Study

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.
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Example Sentences

The Senate, by happenstance rather than design, has evolved into what Jonathan Chait aptly terms “the most powerful source of institutional racism in American life.”

From Vox

The Paleogene began with the detonation of an asteroid a billion times more powerful than a nuclear bomb, wiping out 75 percent of all plants and animals on the planet.

Clearly, it’s a powerful way to help rescue restaurants and bars.

From Fortune

This summer Honeywell revealed a quantum computer that it claimed was more powerful than any other, as measured by an IBM’s own preferred quantum volume metric.

From Fortune

Then I carefully opened the trap and watched as the mole used its powerful front legs—as if doing a breaststroke—to burrow down into the leaves and dirt, disappearing in only a few seconds.

They carved a refuge out of the wilderness and then, in 200 years, built it into the most powerful nation on earth.

In memoriam, Parker Molloy writes a powerful letter to Leelah.

It might be the most powerful affirmation, and perhaps even a feminist or political statement, from any public person this year.

It was fearless and raunchy and fun and ridiculous and weird and feminist and powerful.

But taking such action puts them at odds with the most powerful and best-organized segment of their coalition.

Many of their cannon balls that fell far short of us, were collected and returned to them with powerful effect.

European tobacco is lacking in flavor and is less powerful than the tobacco of America.

He had seen through a powerful naval glass some figures standing erect and silhouetted against the sky on the parapet.

But green Chartreuse unhappily is not innocent; it is more than a spirit, it is a powerful drug.

The trains were pulled up the incline at the Lickey by powerful stationary engines.

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