Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking physical strength or vigor; weak.
- adj. Lacking in power, as to act effectively; helpless: "Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent” ( Freeman J. Dyson).
- adj. Incapable of sexual intercourse, often because of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection.
- adj. Sterile. Used of males.
- adj. Obsolete Lacking self-restraint.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not potent; lacking power, strength, or vigor, physical, intellectual, or moral; powerless; weak; feeble.
- Wholly lacking in sexual power: said of the male, and rarely of the female.
- Lacking the power of self-restraint; destitute of self-command; ungovernable.
- n. One who is feeble, infirm, or languishing under disease.
- n. A male without sexual power.
Wiktionary
- adj. Lacking physical strength or vigor; weak.
- adj. Lacking in power, as to act effectively; helpless.
- adj. Incapable of sexual intercourse, often because of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection.
- adj. of a male Sterile.
- adj. obsolete Lacking self-restraint.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not potent; wanting power, strength. or vigor. whether physical, intellectual, or moral; deficient in capacity; destitute of force; weak; feeble; infirm.
- adj. Wanting the power of self-restraint; incontrolled; ungovernable; violent.
- adj. (Med.) Wanting the power of procreation; unable to copulate; also, sometimes, sterile; barren. unable to achieve or sustain a penile erection.
- n. rare One who is impotent.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of a male) unable to copulate
- adj. lacking power or ability
Etymologies
- Latin impotēns, from in- (expresses negation) + potēns ("powerful"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin impotēns, impotent- : in-, not; see in-1 + potēns, potent; see potent. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“She sprang to her feet, wringing her hands in impotent wrath.”
“Eh, you old scoundrel," he added, turning to the old chief, who sat gibbering in impotent rage at the foot of the steps.”
“The small group of soldiers screamed and waved their weapons in impotent rage, but most wept silently, clinging to loved ones, stoically awaiting their fate.”
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“Britain, on the other hand, could only look on in impotent fury.”
“If you could only see me shaking my fist in impotent rage at the screen right now.”
“Though the US being impotent is really the goal of the left.”
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“Ineffective and impotent is definitely a good description of Canada today.”
“It's a form of the word impotent, which in Old American was a contraction of the phrase, "I am potent"--the exact opposite of what people think it means today.”
“He hated every movement he made against the screaming of his own will—hated the expression of impotent disgrace so plainly sketched on Sulu's haunted features—hated knowing that his own face no doubt displayed his own mortification just as plainly.”
“Colonel Le Noir ground his teeth in impotent rage, muttering:”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘impotent’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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of Montreal
Every time I finally decipher Kevin Barnes's song lyrics, I feel somewhat smarter.
These are strange/big/obscure words and phrases from the lyrics of the band 'of Montreal' (intentiona...southern hemisphe..., paradigm, Phaidon Press, permutation, List Christie, Gemini Tactics, eluardian, persecution complex, Himmlers, parabola, Mono Club, subconscious mass... and 132 more...
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Lolita
Marat, diaphanous, stolid, inveigle, moll, domicile, pugilist, indigent, corpulent, erudite, coruscate, ameliorate and 16 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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dickinsonian
psalteries, enamoring, estates, whim, calyx, hoisted, nought, pentateuchal, retina, obviated, revelation, stalactite and 193 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Advanced Words: Part II
facetious, felicitous, grandiloquent, germane, repatriate, exigency, exculpate, etheral, fatuous, heterogeneous, hiatus, idiosyncrasy and 118 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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heart of darkness
yawl, sea-reach, offing, barge, sprit, estuary, yarn, aft, mizzenmast, placid, gauzy, diaphanous and 141 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
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Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for impotent.

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