powerful

pow·er·ful  (pour-fl)

adj.

1. Having or capable of exerting power.

2. Effective or potent: a powerful drug.

3. Chiefly Upper Southern U.S. Great: "[Everybody had] a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all" (Mark Twain).

adv. Chiefly Upper Southern U.S.

Very: It was powerful humid.

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power·ful·ly adv.

power·ful·ness n.

Regional Note: 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 18th and 19th centuries: "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. Colloquial English is always on the lookout for ways to make language more vivid with new intensives. We think of the Upper Southern part of the United States as linguistically conservative, but in fact it has preserved uses of power, powerful, and mighty that were innovative in their time.

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powerful

Adjective

1. having great power or influence

2. having great physical strength

3. extremely effective: a powerful drug

powerfully adv
powerfulness n

Thesaurus

Adj.	1.	powerful - having great power or force or potency or effect; "the most powerful government in western Europe"; "his powerful arms"; "a powerful bomb"; "the horse's powerful kick"; "powerful drugs"; "a powerful argument" effective, effectual, efficacious - producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect; "an air-cooled motor was more effective than a witch's broomstick for rapid long-distance transportation"-LewisMumford; "effective teaching methods"; "effective steps toward peace"; "made an effective entrance"; "his complaint proved to be effectual in bringing action"; "an efficacious law" potent, stiff, strong - having a strong physiological or chemical effect; "a potent toxin"; "potent liquor"; "a potent cup of tea", "a stiff drink" strong - having strength or power greater than average or expected; "a strong radio signal"; "strong medicine"; "a strong man" powerless - lacking power
	2.	powerful - strong enough to knock down or overwhelm; "a knock-down blow" knock-down strong - having strength or power greater than average or expected; "a strong radio signal"; "strong medicine"; "a strong man"
	3.	powerful - having great influence potent influential - having or exercising influence or power; "an influential newspaper"; "influential leadership for peace"
	4.	powerful - (of a person) possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful; "a hefty athlete"; "a muscular boxer"; "powerful arms" brawny, hefty, sinewy, muscular strong - having strength or power greater than average or expected; "a strong radio signal"; "strong medicine"; "a strong man"
	5.	powerful - displaying superhuman strength or power; "herculean exertions" herculean superhuman - above or beyond the human or demanding more than human power or endurance; "superhuman beings"; "superhuman strength"; "soldiers driven mad by superhuman misery"
Adv.	1.	powerful - (Southern regional intensive) very; to a great degree; "the baby is mighty cute"; "he's mighty tired"; "it is powerful humid"; "that boy is powerful big now"; "they have a right nice place"; "they rejoiced mightily" mighty, mightily, right intensifier, intensive - a modifier that has little meaning except to intensify the meaning it modifies; "`up' in `finished up' is an intensifier"; "`honestly' in `I honestly don't know' is an intensifier"

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powerful

adjective 1. influential, dominant, controlling, commanding, supreme, prevailing, sovereign, authoritative, puissant, skookum Canad. << OPPOSITE powerless

adjective 2. strong, strapping, mighty, robust, vigorous, potent, energetic, sturdy, stalwart << OPPOSITE weak

adjective 3. persuasive, convincing, effective, telling, moving, striking, storming, dramatic, impressive, compelling, authoritative, forceful, weighty, forcible, cogent, effectual

Translations

powerful [ˈpauəful] adj → poderoso; [engine] → potente (= strong); fuerte; [play, speech] → conmovedor(a)

powerful [ˈpauəful] power adj → puissant(e); [performance etc] → très fort(e)

powerful [ˈpauəful] power adj [person, organization] → mächtig; [body, voice, blow etc] → kräftig; [engine] → stark (= unpleasant) [smell] → streng; [emotion] → überwältigend; [argument, evidence] → massiv

powerful [ˈpauəful] adj → potente, forte