impotent

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
He stood impotent ... in other words, they were divorced.

View all »
Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. adjective Lacking physical strength or vigor; weak.
  2. adjective Lacking in power, as to act effectively; helpless: "Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent” (Freeman J. Dyson).
  3. adjective Incapable of sexual intercourse, often because of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection.
2 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (42)

  • He stood impotent ... in other words, they were divorced. —  feminine-genius
  • "The notion that policy is impotent, along with commentary on avoiding stocks, are the sorts of things that can define market bottoms". —  The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely
  • Cigarettes are marketed in ways that make it seem as though you'll be sexy and beautiful, but they really make you ugly and impotent -- how sexy is that? —  The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
  • That or impotent, and you should go get yourself checked out. —  All Updates @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
  • Preoperative MR can help surgeons limit nerve damage while performing a robotic assisted laparascopic prostatectomy (RALP) saving some men from becoming impotent, according to a study performed at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA. —  Health News from Medical News Today
More examples »
 

Tags

impotent hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 126 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

futile ·  unable ·  helpless ·  hopeless ·  desperate ·  unreasoning ·  unavailing ·  irrational ·  useless ·  speechless ·  vindictive ·  insane
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin impotēns, impotent- : in-, not; see in-1 + potēns, potent; see potent.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English impotent, from Old French (also F.) impotent = Provencal inpotens = Spanish Portuguese Italian impotente, from Latin impoten(t-)s, inpoten(t-)s, powerless, weak, feeble, without self-control, ungovernable, from in- privative + poten(t-)s, powerful: see potent.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈɪmpətənt/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a year.

Recently looked up

dysfunction · assist · elegiac · vivace · unharmed

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich