powerful

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
16
Words With Friends
19
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/ˈpaʊəfl̩/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈpaʊəfl̩/ · /ˈpaʊɚfl̩/

Definition of powerful

5 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Having, or capable of exerting, power or influence.
    “The powerful grace that lies / In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities.”
    “[T]he ſubſtance of gold is indeed invincible by the povverfulleſt action of natural heat, […]”
    “As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.”
    “Dear Political Activists All your chanting, marching, voting, picketing, boycotting and letter-writing will not change a thing; you will never right the wrongs of this world. The only thing your activity will accomplish is to make some of you feel better. Such activity makes powerless people feel useful, and provides them the illusion that they're making a difference. But it doesn't work. Nothing changes. The powerful keep the power. That's why they're called the powerful.”
    “Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere — an invisible bubble of magnetism generated by the powerful churning of molten metals at Earth’s core.”
See all 5 definitions

adj

  1. Having, or capable of exerting, power or influence.
    “The powerful grace that lies / In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities.”
    “[T]he ſubſtance of gold is indeed invincible by the povverfulleſt action of natural heat, […]”
    “As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.”
    “Dear Political Activists All your chanting, marching, voting, picketing, boycotting and letter-writing will not change a thing; you will never right the wrongs of this world. The only thing your activity will accomplish is to make some of you feel better. Such activity makes powerless people feel useful, and provides them the illusion that they're making a difference. But it doesn't work. Nothing changes. The powerful keep the power. That's why they're called the powerful.”
    “Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere — an invisible bubble of magnetism generated by the powerful churning of molten metals at Earth’s core.”
  2. Leading to many or important deductions.
    “a powerful set of postulates”
    “a powerful theorem”
  3. Large; capacious; said of veins of ore.
  4. (not-comparable)Being a powerful number.

adv

  1. (Southern-US, archaic, dialectal)very; extremely
    “"She was stinkin' hot down here that summer, an' we were powerful dry."”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English pouerful, powarfull. By surface analysis, power + -ful.

Anagrams of powerful

2 plays · some not in Scrabble

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