What does "firepower" mean?

The capacity of a weapon to deliver fire onto a target.

Firepower

Common synonyms include: antiaircraft fire, cross fire, curtain fire, direct fire, dry fire, fighting force.

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The capacity of a weapon to deliver fire onto a target. countable, uncountable
2
(military) the relative capacity for delivering fire on a target wordnet
3
The ability to deliver fire. countable, uncountable
4
The ability and resources to dominate. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"He'd have to be on every one of his toes, because Larry Cohen, the insurance company's lawyer, would protect the doctor with every bit of legal firepower at his disposal."

"No matter how many troops they have or how much firepower they have, we'll crush them if they invade our country."

From fire + power.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.