Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Possessing inner or physical strength; powerful.
- adj. Exerting or capable of exerting strong physiological or chemical effects: potent liquor; a potent toxin.
- adj. Exerting or capable of exerting strong influence; cogent: potent arguments.
- adj. Having great control or authority: "The police were potent only so long as they were feared” ( Thomas Burke).
- adj. Able to perform sexual intercourse. Used of a male.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Powerful; possessed of inherent strength. Powerful in a physical sense; effective; efficacious.
- Powerful in a moral sense; having great influence; cogent; prevailing; convincing: as, potent arguments; potent interest.
- Having great authority, control, or dominion.
- In heraldry, divided or included by a line or lines forming a series of potents: as, a fesse potent. [In this sense originally potenté.]
- n. A prince; a potentate.
- n. A crutch; a walking-staff.
- n. In heraldry: A figure resembling the head of a crutch, and consisting of a parallelogram laid horizontally on the top of a small square.
- n. A fur made up of patches or figures. There are four varieties. Of these, the first is the most common, and is generally called potent; the second is generally called counter potent; and the others are varieties which different authors describe by the above names, or by the term potent counter-potent, which is applied to one or the other indifferently.
- n. In watch-making, a journal plate or bearing.
Wiktionary
- adj. Possessing strength
- adj. Being effective in small quantities.
- adj. Having a sharp or offensive taste.
- adj. of a male able to procreate.
- adj. very powerful or effective.
- n. heraldry A heraldic fur formed by a regular tessellation of blue and white T shapes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Producing great physical effects; forcible; powerful' efficacious.
- adj. Having great authority, control, or dominion; puissant; mighty; influential.
- adj. Powerful, in an intellectual or moral sense; having great influence
- n. obsolete A prince; a potentate.
- n. obsolete A staff or crutch.
- n. (Her.) One of the furs; a surface composed of patches which are supposed to represent crutch heads; they are always alternately argent and azure, unless otherwise specially mentioned.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or wielding force or authority
- adj. (of a male) capable of copulation
- adj. having great influence
- adj. having a strong physiological or chemical effect
Etymologies
- From Latin potens ("powerful, strong, potent"), present participle of posse ("to be able"), from potis ("able, powerful, originally a lord, master"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Latin potēns, potent-, present participle of posse, to be able; see poti- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But it's what we're used to, and still remain potent symbols in an age devoid of symbolism.”
“Third receiver in potent passing game and a solid punt returner whose offseason work set an example for other young players.”
“Like its similarly underrated cousin, Birth, Joshua makes up in potent atmosphere and formal mastery what it lacks in narrative logic; unlike Birth, however, it's further enhanced by two superlative adult performances (courtesy Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga) that invest a ludicrous premise with conviction and behavioral nuance.”
“I think the Reload power's more potent from a protective standpoint, but the Google-fu stands to make me more powerful in the world.”
““White Disaster,” some called the potent dwarven drink.”
“These results on depancreatized dogs showed beyond doubt that the antidiabetic hormone was present in potent form in the extracts, and the time seemed ripe to investigate their action on the clinical forms of diabetes.”
“However, when the Redskins, one year removed from 4-12 and one week after a two-touchdown loss to the Rams, beat the Eagles, previously presumed to be potent, that is fairly stunning.”
“Alcohol is particularly dangerous for teenagers because it is so pervasive in our adult world (and in most human cultures generally), but is not identified as the potent drug it is.”
“It's very potent, which is good, given the cost, and it puts me in a wonderful mood.”
Anise and Licorice- Love It or Loathe It, Some Gotta Have It
“Using neuroscience and the most advanced brain-scanning technique available today—the fMRI—global research institute Millward Brown studied the brains of twenty men and women in the UK to find out whether the “Royal Mail experiment” had created true emotional engagement, that is to say, a potent emotional response, in consumers.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘potent’.
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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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Describing the Taste of Foods
yummy, zesty, piquant, pungent, sharp, spicy, poignant, delicious, ambrosial, appetizing, delectable, heavenly and 194 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 134 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 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:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Wordplay
reticent, slammerkin, moonstruck, zephyr, gallivant, hullabaloo, pandemonium, equestrian, wallflower, martyr, threadbare, treacherous and 180 more...
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List of Heraldry Terms
Words and phrases used in blazoning heraldic devices, along with names and other terms associated with the art and science.
Other similar lists can be found on Wordnik, especially that...seiant, duciper, bourdon, pouch, scrip, staff, ananas, besant d'argent, roundle, roundel, argent, allocamelus and 743 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 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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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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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL P
pacifistic, pacify, palatable, palaver, palliate, pallid, palpable, pamper, panacea, pandemic, pandemonium, panegyric and 209 more...
Tweets
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