powerless

English

Etymology

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

Adjective

powerless (comparative more powerless, superlative most powerless)

Lacking sufficient power or strength.
I admit that I am powerless over my hatred towards white people in ways that I am unable to recognize fully, both at this time and in the past.
- 1914, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
  It is said that his right arm had grown powerless from having been raised so often over the heads of those whom he baptized.
Lacking legal authority.
The traffic warden was powerless to stop me driving away.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

lacking sufficient power or strength

Czech: bezmocný
Dutch: machteloos (nl)
Esperanto: senpova
Finnish: voimaton (fi), heikko (fi)
French: impuissant (fr)
German: kraftlos (de)
Greek:
Ancient: ἀδύνατος (adúnatos)
Hungarian: erőtlen (hu)
Interlingua: impotente
Italian: impotente (it)

Japanese: 弱い (ja) (yowai), 脆い (ja) (moroi)
Latin: nequiens, impotens
Macedonian: немоќен (nemokjen)
Manx: neuphooaral
Maori: hangenge, mīere, rōrā, kahakore, mohemohe, ngoikore, paraheahea
Norwegian: maktesløs
Polish: bezsilny (pl)
Portuguese: impotente
Russian: бесси́льный (ru) (bessílʹnyj), беспо́мощный (ru) (bespómoščnyj)
Serbo-Croatian: nemoćan (sh), obesnažen
Spanish: impotente

lacking legal authority

Dutch: machteloos (nl)
Finnish: voimaton (fi)
German: machtlos (de)
Greek:
Ancient: ἀκρατής (akratḗs)
Hungarian: tehetetlen (hu)

Latin: nequiens, impotens
Maori: manakore
Norwegian: maktesløs
Russian: безвла́стный (ru) (bezvlástnyj), неправомо́чный (ru) (nepravomóčnyj)
Serbo-Croatian: nepravomoćan (sh)

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.