impuissance
French, noun/ɛ̃.pɥi.sɑ̃s/
impuissance is spelled I-M-P-U-I-S-S-A-N-C-E (11 letters) and appears 3.8 times per million words in written French, the 13,537th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Impuissance is a French feminine noun meaning “impotency, helplessness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Manque de pouvoir, de moyens pour faire quelque chose”.
What does impuissance mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineimpotency, helplessness
- 2
feminineerectile dysfunction
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Manque de pouvoir, de moyens pour faire quelque chose. 2. Incapacité sexuelle. 3. Sentiment d’impuissance, impression de n’avoir aucun pouvoir ou levier d’action.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of impuissance
- impuissances plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce impuissance?
- /ɛ̃.pɥi.sɑ̃s/
- \ɛ̃.pɥi.sɑ̃s\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to impuissance
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is impuissance in French?
impuissance appears 3.8 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).