# power

Pronunciation: US say "POW-ur" /ˈpaʊ̯.ɚ/; UK say "POW-uh" /ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/

## Noun

1. Control or influence over other people or events, or the authority to govern and command.
   - Simple: The ability or right to control people and what happens.
   - _Congress holds the power to declare war._
   - _The board stripped the founder of his executive power._
2. Electricity, or the supply of electricity delivered to homes, businesses, and equipment.
   - Simple: Electricity, or the supply of electricity that runs lights and machines.
   - _The hospital switched to backup generators when the power failed._
   - _Restoring power to the flooded district took crews several days._
3. An ability or capacity to do something or to have a particular effect.
   - Simple: An ability to do something or to make something happen.
   - _Storytelling holds a power that dry facts never will._
   - _She has remarkable powers of persuasion._
5. The physical force or strength of a body or movement.
   - Simple: The physical strength or force of a person, animal, or thing.
   - _The river's current swept the logs away with tremendous power._
   - _She swung the axe with all the power in her arms._
6. The rate at which energy is transferred or work is performed, measured as energy per unit of time.
   - Simple: How fast energy is used or moved from one place to another.
   - _Running up the stairs takes more power than walking up, even though you do the same work._
   - _Filling the tower tank in an hour instead of three takes a pump with much more power._
7. A nation, company, or other body that is strong or highly influential.
   - Simple: A strong or important country, company, or other group.
   - _Britain was the dominant naval power of the era._
   - _Several emerging powers are reshaping global trade._
8. Used before a noun to designate someone who does something forcefully or on a large, grand scale.
   - Simple: Used before a noun to show that someone acts in a strong, big way.
   - _During the holiday sales, my sister turns into a power shopper, working through six stores before most people have finished breakfast._
   - _Desperate for runs, the team signed a power hitter who had led the league in home runs two years in a row._
9. Energy that drives machines or vehicles, or makes things move, taken from sources like wind, water, steam, fuel, or muscle.
   - Simple: Energy, for example from wind, water, fuel, or muscles, that makes machines and vehicles work or move.
   - _Early factories were built beside fast streams to harness their power for the looms._
   - _Steam engines supplied the power that drove the first railroads._
11. Those holding legal or political authority, taken collectively; the government.
   - Simple: The group of people who control a country's government.
   - _The journalist made a career of holding power to account._
   - _Each new scandal showed how little power cared what ordinary voters thought._
12. An exponent showing how many times a number, the base, is used as a factor, or the product that results.
   - Simple: A number that shows how many copies of a number to multiply together, or the answer you get.
   - _To find the power, use the base as a factor as many times as the exponent says._
   - _Raising ten to higher powers quickly produces enormous numbers._
13. A deity, spirit or other otherworldly being or force held to have a hand in what happens, as in a higher power or the powers of darkness.
   - Simple: A god, spirit, or other unseen being or force that people believe can shape events.
   - _Many recovery programs ask members to put their trust in a power greater than themselves._
   - _The villagers left offerings at the shrine to keep the powers of the forest on their side._
16. The magnifying strength of a lens or mirror, or how much it enlarges an image.
   - Simple: How much a lens or mirror makes things look bigger.
   - _Astronomers swapped in an eyepiece of greater power to study the planet's surface._
   - _Under high power, the students could finally make out individual bacteria drifting across the slide._
18. A great amount or large number of something. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A large amount or number of something.
   - _A good night's sleep does a power of good after a hard week._
   - _After months of stress, that quiet weekend in the mountains did him a power of good._

## Verb

4. To supply a machine or device with the energy it needs to work; also, to be the driving force behind something.
   - Simple: To give a machine the energy it needs to work, or to be what makes something go.
   - _Solar panels power the entire research station._
   - _A single turbine powers thousands of homes._
14. To advance or surge forward forcefully and at speed.
   - Simple: To move forward with great force or speed.
   - _The cyclists power up the steep hill without slowing._
   - _The express train powered through the station without stopping._
15. To strike or kick something with great force.
   - Simple: To hit or kick something with great force.
   - _Top players power their forehands deep into the court._
   - _The forward powered a header into the goal._

## Adjective

10. Describing a device that is driven or assisted by an electric motor or an engine, so it need not be worked by hand or muscle alone.
   - Simple: Worked or helped by a motor or engine, not only by a person's hands or strength.
   - _She traded her handsaw for a power saw and finished the deck in half the time._
   - _Power windows were once a luxury option, but most new cars now come with them._

## Noun

17. An army or other organized military force. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An army or military force.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The probability that a statistical test correctly rejects the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis actually holds.
- (noun) In Christian angelology, an order of angels ranked above the archangels, though the exact position varies between classification systems.
- (interjection) Used as a cheer or shout to express support and encouragement.
- (adjective) Impressive; very good or excellent.
- (noun) In trucking, the tractor unit that hauls a trailer.
- (noun) Any of the elementary mechanical devices (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley, plus the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw) from which more complex machines are built.
- (noun) The cardinality of a set; that is, the number of elements it contains.
- (noun) In quiz bowl, a correct answer to a tossup given before a marked point in the question, earning extra points.

## Origin

English power (in Middle English also poer) came from Old French poeir, which goes back through Vulgar Latin potēre to Latin posse, the source of English potent as well. French pouvoir is a relative, and the borrowed word pushed out the native Old English anweald.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/power (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).