DictionaryAI

powerful

POW-ur-fuhl/ˈpaʊɚfl̩/UKPOW-uh-fuhl/ˈpaʊəfl̩/

7 meanings of powerful

Practice

  1. 1
    control over othersadjective
    Having a lot of strength, control, or influence over others.

    Like a boss who can tell everyone else what to do.

    A powerful king ruled the whole country for forty years.

    Their company has a powerful new leader who changes everything fast.

    Similarinfluential, mighty, dominant, formidable

    Oppositepowerless, impotent

    Note
  2. 2
    adjective
    Very strong in body or force. A powerful machine can do a lot of work.

    The boxer has powerful arms and a fast punch.

    This vacuum cleaner is more powerful than our old one.

    UsageFor machines, the opposite is weak. Powerless usually means having no control.

    Similarstrong, mighty, forceful

    Oppositeweak, feeble

    Note
  3. 3
    adjective
    Able to change in a strong way how your body works or how you think or feel.

    This medicine is powerful, so take only one pill a day.

    The movie had a powerful ending that made me cry.

    Similarstrong, potent, moving, compelling, effective

    Oppositeweak, mild

    Note
  4. 4
    highly usefuladjective
    Useful for working out many new facts or ideas, or very important ones.

    Like a master key that opens many different doors at once.

    This simple rule is powerful, because from it we can work out many other facts.

    One powerful idea in math can lead to hundreds of new results.

    Similarfruitful, productive

    Note

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    extremelyadverbarchaicSouthern US
    Very or extremely, used in country speech, especially in the Southern US, to make another word stronger.

    It was powerful cold out on the prairie that morning.

    "She was stinkin' hot down here that summer, an' we were powerful dry."
    1972, John O'Grady, It's Your ShoutHere, powerful means very, so powerful dry means very thirsty.

    UsagePut it before another describing word: powerful tired. In normal writing, say very.

    Note
  2. 6
    adjective
    Describing a positive whole number whose prime factors each occur at least twice when it is written as a product of primes.
  3. 7
    adjective
    Very large or wide, used about veins of metal ore in rock.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English pouerful. It comes from "power" plus the ending "-ful".

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts