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powerful

adjective

Simple meaning

Having great power or force or potency or effect.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

powerfuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpaʊɚfəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having great power or force or potency or effect

  2. Having, or capable of exerting, power or influence.

  3. Leading to many or important deductions.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

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More ways to use powerful

  • “The most powerful government in western Europe.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Having great power or force or potency

powerful influencepowerful forcepowerful effectpowerful means

Other combinations

less powerfulpowerful tool

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • almighty

    Having very great power, influence, etc.

  • potent

    Powerful; possessing power; effective.

  • strong

    Having strength or power greater than average or expected.

  • influential

    Having or exercising influence or power.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • powerlessadjectiveDerived adjective

    Lacking power.

  • powerfullyadverbDerived adverb

    In a powerful manner.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • power usernounRelated term

    A computer user who needs the fastest and most powerful computers available.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: having great power or force or potency or effect

omnipotent

Antonyms

Sense: having great power or force or potency or effect

weak

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.