strength

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The state, property, or quality of being strong.
2. n. The power to resist attack; impregnability.
3. n. The power to resist strain or stress; durability.
4. n. The ability to maintain a moral or intellectual position firmly.
5. n. Capacity or potential for effective action: a show of strength.
6. n. The number of people constituting a normal or ideal organization: The police force has been at half strength since the budget cuts.
7. n. Military capability in terms of personnel and materiel: an army of fearsome strength.
8. n. A source of power or force.
9. n. One that is regarded as the embodiment of protective or supportive power; a support or mainstay.
10. n. An attribute or quality of particular worth or utility; an asset.
11. n. Degree of intensity, force, effectiveness, or potency in terms of a particular property, as:
12. n. Degree of concentration, distillation, or saturation; potency.
13. n. Operative effectiveness or potency.
14. n. Intensity, as of sound or light.
15. n. Intensity or vehemence, as of emotion or language.
16. n. Effective or binding force; efficacy: the strength of an argument.
17. n. Firmness of or a continuous rising tendency in prices, as on the stock market.
18. n. Games Power derived from the value of playing cards held.
19. idiom. on the strength of On the basis of: She was hired on the strength of her computer skills.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The property of being strong; force; power. Specifically— In animals, that attribute of an animal body by which it is enabled to move itself or other bodies. The strength of animals is the muscular force or energy which they are capable of exerting. See horse-power.
2. n. In inanimate things, the property by which they sustain the application of force without breaking or yielding: as, the strength of a bone; the strength of a beam; the strength of a wall; the strength of a rope.
3. n. Hence Power or vigor of any kind; ability; capacity for work or effective action, whether physical, intellectual, or moral: as, strength of grasp or stroke; strength of mind, memory, or judgment; strength of feeling (that is, not intensity but effectiveness of emotion).
4. n. One who or that which is regarded as an embodiment of force or strength; that on which confidence or reliance is firmly set; stay; support; security.
5. n. Force; violence; vehemence; intensity.
6. n. Degree of the distinguishing or essential element or constituent; the power to produce sensible effects on other bodies; potency: said of liquors and the like: as, the strength of an acid; the strength of wine or spirits; the strength of a potion or a poison.
7. n. Force as measured or stated in figures; amount or numbers of any collective body, as of an army or a fleet: as, a play adapted to the whole strength of the company; the full strength of a regiment.
8. n. Available force or backing, as of a candidate: as, his strength is greatest in the cities.
9. n. Force proceeding from motion and proportioned to it; vehemence; impetuosity: as, the strength of a current of air or water; the strength of a charge of cavalry.
10. n. A stronghold.
11. n. In colors, the relative property possessed by a pigment of imparting a color to and modifying the shade of any other pigment to which it is added. Thus, one pound of lampblack added to 100 pounds of white lead produces a dark-gray shade, but one pound of ivory-black added in the same way would have little effect on the white.
12. n. In the fine arts, boldness of conception or treatment.
13. n. In soap-making. See the quotation.
14. n. Synonyms Force, etc. See power.
15. To strengthen.
16. n. In milling, the bread-making quality of flour; the adhesive quality of the gluten in the flour. This, when the flour is made into dough, causes the dough to retain the carbonic-acid gas which results from the reaction of the yeast, and gives the dough greater power to rise and make a larger and finer loaf.

Wiktionary

1. n. The quality of being strong.
2. n. The intensity of a force or power; potency.
3. n. The strongest part of something.
4. n. A positive attribute.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The quality or state of being strong; ability to do or to bear; capacity for exertion or endurance, whether physical, intellectual, or moral; force; vigor; power.
2. n. Power to resist force; solidity or toughness; the quality of bodies by which they endure the application of force without breaking or yielding; -- in this sense opposed to frangibility.
3. n. Power of resisting attacks; impregnability.
4. n. That quality which tends to secure results; effective power in an institution or enactment; security; validity; legal or moral force; logical conclusiveness.
5. n. One who, or that which, is regarded as embodying or affording force, strength, or firmness; that on which confidence or reliance is based; support; security.
6. n. Force as measured; amount, numbers, or power of any body, as of an army, a navy, and the like; as, what is the strength of the enemy by land, or by sea?
7. n. Vigor or style; force of expression; nervous diction; -- said of literary work.
8. n. Intensity; -- said of light or color.
9. n. Intensity or degree of the distinguishing and essential element; spirit; virtue; excellence; -- said of liquors, solutions, etc..
10. n. obsolete A strong place; a stronghold.
11. v. obsolete To strengthen.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. capacity to produce strong physiological or chemical effects
2. n. capability in terms of personnel and materiel that affect the capacity to fight a war
3. n. the amount of energy transmitted (as by acoustic or electromagnetic radiation)
4. n. physical energy or intensity
5. n. the condition of financial success
6. n. the power to induce the taking of a course of action or the embracing of a point of view by means of argument or entreaty
7. n. an asset of special worth or utility
8. n. permanence by virtue of the power to resist stress or force
9. n. the property of being physically or mentally strong