Meaning of power in English

power

noun

/paʊər/ us

/ˈpaʊ.ɚ/

power noun (CONTROL)

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B2 [ U ]

ability to control people and events:

I've no power over him - he does what he wants to.

Once nicotine has you in its power, it's very difficult to stop smoking.

She has the power to charm any man she meets.

C1 [ U ]

the amount of political control a person or group has in a country:

Does the president have more power than the prime minister?

How long has the Conservative Party been in power?

The army seized power after five days of anti-government demonstrations.

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After eight years in power, the government can no longer use the previous government's policy as an alibi for its own failure.
Until the constitution is amended, the power to appoint ministers will remain with the president.
Fair trade, say Oxfam, is about giving poor people power.
The army took control of the city after the president's fall from power.
Most modern kings and queens rule only in a formal way, without real power.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Power to control

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power noun (STRENGTH)

C1 [ U ]

strength:

Our car doesn't have enough power to tow a trailer.

Weightlifters have tremendous power in their arms and legs.

Scientists are working to harness the power of the atom.

The economic power of many Asian countries has grown dramatically in recent years.

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The pictures were an eloquent reminder of the power of the volcano.
The Kon-Tiki sailed across the Pacific Ocean propelled by wind power.
I was so terrified I seemed to lose all the power from my legs.
It is astonishing to see the sheer power of this extraordinary athlete.
The power of her religious faith is clear for all to see.
We were struck by the power of the dancers' performances.

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Power to control

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power noun (OFFICIAL RIGHT)

[ U ]

an official or legal right to do something:

[ + to infinitive ] I'd like to help but I don't have the power to intervene in this dispute.

It's not in your power to cancel the order.

I can't give you a refund - I'm afraid it's not within my power.

powers [ plural ]

authority:

beyond someone's powers You were acting beyond your powers when you agreed to give her a pay rise.

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Since the government limited their powers, the unions are no longer a force to be reckoned with .
I'll do everything within my power as a lawyer to achieve justice for you.
The power to sack employees resides in the Board of Directors.
He has been vested with the power to implement whatever changes he sees fit.
They have the power to say yes or no to big investment projects.

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Court cases, orders & decisions

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power noun (ELECTRICITY)

B1 [ U ]

electricity, especially when considering its use or production:

You should disconnect the power before attempting to repair electrical equipment.

Our building lost power (= the electricity was stopped) during the storm.

power cables/lines

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Most of the data on the hard drive was corrupted by the power cut.
Solar power is the conversion of the sun's energy into heat and electricity.
The storm has affected power lines all over the region.
a hydroelectric power station
a nuclear power plant

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Electricity & electronics

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power noun (ABILITY)

powers [ plural ]

abilities:

My mental powers aren't as good as they used to be.

C1 [ U ]

a natural skill or an ability to do something:

power of He was so shocked by what happened to his parents that he lost the power of speech.

We humans believe that we are the only animals to have the power of reason.

[ + to infinitive ] The surgeon did everything in her power to save him.

Environmentalists are doing everything within their power to minimize the impact of the oil spill.

Solving this problem has taken all my brain power.

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Skill, talent and ability

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power noun (PERSON WITH CONTROL)

C1 [ C ]

a person, organization, or country that has control over others, often because of wealth, importance, or great military strength:

Spain was an important military power in the 16th century.

Germany is on its way to becoming a world power with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

She is an increasingly important power in the company.

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a dominant military power
This country would never submit to living under the heel of a foreign power.
an imperialist power
The major powers have said they will not send in ground troops .
It's up to the powers that be to decide what should be done next.

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People in charge of or controlling other people

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power noun (ENERGY)

[ U ] physics specialized

the rate at which energy is used, or the ability to produce energy:

The ship was only slightly damaged in the collision and was able to sail into port under its own power.

The power rating of my amplifier is 40 watts per channel.

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Physics: energy, force & power

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power noun (IMAGE SIZE)

[ U ]

the amount by which an image is increased by a device used for seeing things that are very small or a long distance away:

What's the magnification power of your binoculars?

You'll need a very high-power microscope to see something as small as that.

A low-power telescope is enough if you only want to look at the moon.

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Physics: optics, microscopy & lasers

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power noun (MATHEMATICS)

[ S ] mathematics specialized

the number of times that a number is to be multiplied by itself:

2 to the fourth power is 2 times 2 times 2 times 2, which equals 16.

3 to the power 4 is usually written as 34.

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Addition, subtraction, multiplication & division

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Idioms

do someone a power of good
more power to your elbow!
the power behind the throne
the powers that be

power

verb

/paʊ.ər/ us

/ˈpaʊ.ɚ/

power verb (ENERGY)

[ T ]

to provide a machine with energy and the ability to operate:

Buses and trucks are usually powered by diesel engines.

Electricity costs less than petrol, so powering an electric vehicle is cheaper.

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Machines - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Fuels

power verb (STRENGTH)

[ I usually + adv/prep ]

to act with great strength or in a forceful way:

Halfway through, she powered into the lead and went on to win the race.

[ T ]

in sports, to hit or kick the ball very hard:

She powered her return past Fernandez who had come to the net.

He powered his drive over 300 yards down the first hole.

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Moving quickly

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General terms used in ball sports

Phrasal verbs

power (something) down
power through (something)
power (something) up

power

adjective [ before noun ]

power adjective [before noun] (MACHINE)

provided with energy by an electric motor:

a power shower

a power drill

See also

power tool

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Tools in general

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power adjective [before noun] (PERSON)

in sports, having great physical strength:

a power pitcher

a power hitter

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Baseball & rounders

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Physically strong and powerful

(Definition of power from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

power | American Dictionary

power

noun

/ˈpɑʊ·ər/

power noun (CONTROL)

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[ U ]

the ability or right to control people and events, or to influence the way people act or think in important ways:

The election results showed that the Democrats had lost power, with Republicans taking over five more Democratic seats.

power noun (PERSON WHO CONTROLS)

[ C ]

someone or something, such as an organization or country, that has control over others, often because of authority, importance, or wealth:

She is a power in the field of medical education.

power noun (NATURAL ABILITY)

[ C/U ]

a natural skill or ability to do something:

[ U ] She was so shocked that for a moment she lost the power of speech.

[ C ] The doctor did everything in her power to save him.

[ C ] More, though, it is an expression of the artist's power to create.

power noun (STRENGTH)

[ U ]

physical strength or force:

He’s a good baseball player – he hits with a lot of power.

power noun (ENERGY)

[ U ]

the ability to produce energy, or the energy produced:

electrical/nuclear/solar power

[ U ] physics

Power is also the rate at which work is done or at which energy is produced, measured in watts.

[ U ]

Power is also electricity:

Whenever there’s a storm in these parts, you can expect a power outage (= a loss of electrical power).

power noun (MATHEMATICS)

[ U ] mathematics specialized

the number of times that a number is to be multiplied by itself, or the number that is the result of multiplying a number by itself:

Three to the fourth power can be written 34.

power noun (NATION)

[ C ] world history us/ˈpɑʊ·ər/

an independent nation

power

verb [ T ]

/ˈpɑʊ·ər/

power verb [T] (ENERGY)

to provide something with the energy it needs to operate:

[ T ] Many buses and trucks are powered by diesel fuel.

Phrasal verb

power up (something)

(Definition of power from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

power | Business English

power

noun

/ˈpaʊər/ us

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[ U ]

the ability to control or influence people, organizations, events, etc.:

Shareholder power is a crucial part of how any capitalist society works.

power over sb/sth Most CEOs have a great deal of power over the boards of directors.

the power to do sth Oil prices still have the power to hurt the world economy.

The bitter power struggle at the top of the company had a negative effect on the value of its shares.

The balance of power in global markets is beginning to shift.

be in power The last government was in power for over a decade.

[ C or U ]

an official or legal authority to do something:

have the power to do sth The regulator has the power to block a deal that would be damaging to consumers.

emergency/executive/special powers The Prime Minister was set to invoke emergency powers to handle the distribution of petrol during the crisis.

[ C ]

a group, country, or organization that has control over others, especially because of financial or military strength:

a world/global power China is fast developing into a major global power.

a military/political power

a corporate/economic/financial power

[ U ]

the strength or influence of something in a particular market or activity:

We are seeing a shift in economic power from Europe to Asia.

I believe he has seriously underestimated the power of the brand.

[ U ]

energy that is produced and used to make things work:

The agency is running a campaign to try and turn public opinion in favour of nuclear power.

The energy regulator agreed that power companies could make customers sign long-term agreements.

a power cut/failure/outage A power outage in Quebec left 6 million people in the dark.

[ U ] IT

the ability of a machine, computer, etc. to work effectively:

The system is a way of measuring how much computer-processing power is needed to handle all the hits to a customer's site.

Phrasal verb

power (sth) up

power

adjective [ before noun ]

/ˈpaʊər/ us

operated by electricity or a motor:

power tools

a power drill

used to describe something that shows that you are a busy important person in a company:

She was wearing her trademark power suit for the meeting.

(Definition of power from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of power

power

With pretense, disguise, and unreflective belief in disinterested philosophical analysis, philosophers can easily objectify the interests of certain power groups, whether scientific or political.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Structural consistency is an example of a strong rule that has the power to invalidate changes that yield physically unsupportable designs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The users of the water invested the communal power with the duty of protecting them against usurpers' efforts to divert the water.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As a result, returning refugees introduced new power objects that they carried with them from the localities where they had found refuge.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The specific power deposition must be reduced to avoid destruction of the target.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Indeed, the wish to avoid such veto power may both contribute to surplus coalitions and to grand coalitions between major parties.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both models suggest that innovation is rarely a successful strategy for parties out of power.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Clearly, for values of around 1, this cannot be expected because past inflation has almost no predictive power.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The increase of voltage resulted in a sharp increase of the radiation power.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This considerably reduces the inherent power of his depiction of child labour.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Heuvel stresses he was a misfit, opposing the dominant trend and then, when what he advocated acquired power, turning against it as it became corrupt.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Business groups, as a specific subtype of concentrated interests, can benefit from firms' structural power.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The illustrative example relates to a power distribution system and would be a natural topic for electrical engineering students.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Yet interest analysis without power analysis is trajectories without motion, direction without energy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Often the government's power was not sufficient to handle the affairs of beggars well.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with power

power

These are words often used in combination with power.

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accumulation of power

When it was used for the common good, the people prospered and witchcraft (the private accumulation of power which threatened societal order) was suppressed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

arrogance of power

It is about the arrogance of power.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

awesome power

It is an awesome power.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with power