powerful

English

Alternative forms

• powreful, powrefull (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pouerful, powarfull, equivalent to power +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaʊɚfəl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaʊəfl/
• Hyphenation: pow‧er‧ful

Adjective

powerful (comparative more powerful or powerfuller or powerfuler, superlative most powerful or powerfullest or powerfulest)

1. Having, or capable of exerting power, potency or influence.
   • William Shakespeare

     The powerful grace that lies / In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     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.

2. (mining) Large; capacious; said of veins of ore.

Synonyms

• mightful
• mighty
• powersome
• strengthful
• strong
• forceful

Antonyms

• powerless
• strengthless

Translations

having or capable of exerting power, potency or influence

• Arabic: قَوِيّ (qawiyy)
• Armenian: ուժեղ (hy) (užeġ), հզոր (hy) (hzor), զորեղ (hy) (zoreġ)
• Asturian: poderosu
• Azerbaijani: güclü (az)
• Belarusian: мо́цны (be) (mócny), магу́тны (mahútny)
• Bulgarian: мо́щен (bg) (móšten), могъ̀щ (bg) (mogǎ̀št)
• Catalan: potent, poderós (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎤᎳᏂᎩᏛ (ulanigidv)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 強大／强大 (zh) (qiángdà), 强大 (zh) (qiángdà), 強勁／强劲 (zh) (qiángjìng), 强劲 (zh) (qiángjìng), 強力／强力 (zh) (qiánglì), 强力 (zh) (qiánglì)

• Czech: mocný (cs), účinný (cs)
• Dutch: machtig (nl)
• Egyptian: (wsr)
• Esperanto: potenca
• Estonian: võimas
• Finnish: voimakas (fi), vahva (fi), mahtava (fi), voimallinen (fi), tehokas (fi)
• French: puissant (fr)
• Galician: poderoso, potente
• Georgian: ძლევამოსილი (ʒlevamosili)
• German: mächtig (de)
• Greek: ισχυρός (el) (ischyrós)

  Ancient Greek: δυνατός (dunatós), ἰσχυρός (iskhurós)

• Icelandic: öflugur m, voldugur (is) m, máttugur (is) m, kröftugur m, kraftmikill m, valdamikill m
• Irish: cumhachtach, cumasach, láidir, éifeachtach, neartmhar, bríomhar
• Italian: potente (it)
• Japanese: 強力な (ja) (きょうりょくな, kyōryoku na), 強い (ja) (つよい, tsuyoi)
• Kazakh: күшті (kk) (küştı)
• Khmer: ខ្លាំងពូកែ (klang puu kae), ខ្លាំងក្លា (klang klaa)
• Korean: 강하다 (ko) (ganghada), 강력하다 (ko) (gangnyeokhada)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: کار بەدەست (kar bedest), بەھێز (behêz)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kyrgyz: күчтүү (ky) (küctüü)
• Latin: imperiōsus, potens (la)
• Macedonian: мо́ќен (móḱen)
• Malay: berkuasa
• Mirandese: poderoso, podroso
• Norman: piêssant
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kraftfull, mektig

  Nynorsk: kraftfull, mektig

• Persian: قوی (fa) (qavi)
• Polish: mocny (pl), potężny (pl)
• Portuguese: poderoso (pt), potente (pt)
• Russian: могу́щественный (ru) (mogúščestvennyj), могу́чий (ru) (mogúčij), мо́щный (ru) (móščnyj), влия́тельный (ru) (vlijátelʹnyj) (influential)
• Scottish Gaelic: cumhachdach
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: моћан

  Roman: moćan (sh)

• Slovak: mocný
• Slovene: močan (sl)
• Spanish: poderoso (es)
• Tajik: қавӣ (tg) (qavi)
• Telugu: బలమైన (te) (balamaina), శక్తివంతం (śaktivantaṁ)
• Turkish: güçlü (tr)
• Turkmen: güýçli
• Ukrainian: могу́тній (mohútnij), мі́цний (mícnyj)
• Uzbek: kuchli (uz)
• Vietnamese: mạnh mẽ (vi), hùng mạnh, hùng cường (vi)
• Welsh: pwerus
• Yiddish: מעכטיג (mekhtig), שטאַרק m (shtark), כּוחדיק (koyekhdik)

See also

• strong

Adverb

powerful (comparative more powerful, superlative most powerful)

1. (Southern US) Synonym of very

Anagrams

• powreful