Powerless

//ˈpaʊɚləs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Lacking sufficient power or strength.

    "In Sweden, as we saw, the mistletoe which is gathered on Midsummer Eve is attached to the ceiling of the house, the horse's stall or the cow's crib, in the belief that this renders the Troll powerless to injure man and beast."

  2. 2
    Lacking legal authority.

    "The traffic warden was powerless to stop me driving away."

  3. 3
    Without electricity or electrical power.

    "During the storm, the entire neighborhood was left powerless for several hours"

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking power wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
weakincapacitatednervelessstrengthlessanemicasthenic

Example

More examples

"Human beings are powerless before nature."

Etymology

From Middle English pouerles, powerles, equivalent to power + -less.

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