powerful

pow·er·ful

Use powerful in a sentence

adjective

The definition of powerful is having a lot of strength, authority or force.

An example of something powerful is a violent storm that knocks down many trees and electrical lines.

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MLA Style

"powerful." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Powerful>.

APA Style

powerful. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Powerful

powerful

having much power; strong or influential

Dial. very

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"powerful." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Powerful>.

APA Style

powerful. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Powerful

powerful

adjective

Having or capable of exerting power.
Effective or potent: a powerful drug.
Chiefly Upper Southern US Great: “[Everybody had] a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace … and I don't know what all” ( Mark Twain )

adverb

Chiefly Upper Southern US

Very: It was powerful humid.

Related Forms:

pow′er·ful·ly
adverb

pow′er·ful·ness
noun

Our Living Language In the Upper Southern United States the words powerful and mighty are intensives used frequently in the same way as very : Your boy's grown powerful big. The new baby is mighty purty. Powerful is used as an adjective in some expressions: The storm did a powerful lot of harm. In the same dialect region the noun power has, in addition to its standard meaning, the sense of “a large number or amount.” This sense appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as common in dialectal British English of the 1700s and 1800s: “It has done a power of work” (Charles Dickens). All these derivative senses of power and might take advantage of the notion of strength inherent in these nouns, making them natural intensives.

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.