Dictionary.com

Popular Searches

 Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

powerless

American  
[pou-er-lis] / ˈpaʊ ər lɪs /

adjective

  1. unable to produce an effect.

    a disease against which modern medicine is virtually powerless.
    Synonyms:
    ineffective

  2. lacking power pow power to act; helpless.

    His legs crumpled, and he was powerless to rise.
    Synonyms:
    infirm, prostrate, impotent, feeble
powerless British  
/ ˈpaʊəlɪs /

adjective

  1. without power or authority

"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

Other Word Forms

  • powerlessly adverb
  • powerlessness noun

Etymology

Origin of powerless

First recorded in 1545–55; power + -less

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.

All those moving parts for a player who only made it onto the park as a sub fielder while Australia were still mathematically alive, with Smith powerless to stop Sri Lanka and Pathum Nissanka's charge.

From BBC

"You kind of feel like you feel a bit unimportant; you feel like you're powerless. You feel like nothing is being done."

From BBC

He also said the organisation was "powerless to constrain the nuclear programme" of Tehran.

From BBC

"He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved."

From BBC

"If there's going to be a war and you are on a settlement, of course you feel powerless about that."

From Barron's

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.