power
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "power", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "power" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "power" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
power is aEnglishnoun. It means: The ability to do or undergo something. Pronounced /ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/. It ranks #280 in English word frequency. Often confused with Powys and proper.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | power |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #280 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for power is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/. Corpus data places it at rank #280 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 22 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for power, with forms such as "opwer", "poewr", and "powerr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Powys", "proper", "Powers", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pótis Proto-Italic *potis Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt Proto-Italic *som Proto-Italic *possom Latin posseder. Vulgar Latin potēre Old French … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is power, spelled P-O-W-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The ability to do or undergo something.
- 2The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
- 3The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
- 4The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
- 5The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
- 6The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
- 7The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
- 8Strength, energy.
- 9Strength, energy.
- 10Strength, energy.
- 11Strength, energy.
- 12Strength, energy.
- 13Strength, energy.
- 14A large amount or number.
- 15Any of the elementary forms or parts of machines: three primary (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley) and three secondary (the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw).
- 16A tractor.
- 17A measure of the effectiveness that a force producing a physical effect has over time. If linear, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the displacement of or in an object) ÷ time. If rotational, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the angle of displacement) ÷ time.
- 18A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): xⁿ, read as "x to the power of n" or the like, is called a power and denotes the product x×x×⋯×x, where x appears n times in the product; x is called the base and n the exponent.
- 19Cardinality.
- 20The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.
- 21In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme.
- 22A bonus point awarded for answering correctly before a certain part of the tossup is read.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pótis Proto-Italic *potis Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt Proto-Italic *som Proto-Italic *possom Latin posseder. Vulgar Latin potēre Old French pooir Anglo-Norman poerbor. Middle English power English power From Middle English power, poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, from Latin posse, whence English potent. Compare French pouvoir. Displaced the native Old English anweald.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: opwer,poewr,powerr,powre,powwer,ppower,pwoer
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for power
Misspelling Variants of "power"
Frequency rank: #280 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: