powerful
pow·er·ful/ˈpaʊɚfl̩/adjective
powerful is spelled P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L, 3 syllables: pow·er·ful. The wrong spelling people search most is powerfull: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 17 of all searches for the word. Powerful is an adjective meaning “Having, or capable of exerting, power or influence”.
How many letters and syllables are in powerful?
| Letters | 8: P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: pow·er·ful |
| In writing | 71 times per million words; the 1,486th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, powerfull, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell powerful?
Powerful is spelled P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for powerful in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is powerful?
Powerful appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce powerful?
- UK /ˈpaʊəfl̩/
- US /ˈpaʊɚfl̩/
Powerful has 3 syllables, split pow·er·ful in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-powerful.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of powerful
- more powerful comparative
- most powerful superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does powerful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having, or capable of exerting, power or influence.
- 2
Leading to many or important deductions.
a powerful set of postulates
- 3
Large; capacious; said of veins of ore.
- 4
Being a powerful number.
adverb
- 1
archaicvery; extremely
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Powerful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense having or capable of exerting power, potency or influence:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | puissant |
| German | mächtig, kräftig, kraftvoll |
| Portuguese | poderoso, potente |
| Spanish | poderoso, pudiente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does powerful come from?
From Middle English pouerful, powarfull. By surface analysis, power + -ful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).