puissant
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- overpuissant adjective
- overpuissantly adverb
- puissantly adverb
Etymology
Origin of puissant
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French < Vulgar Latin *possent- (stem of *possēns ), for Latin potent- (stem of potēns ), present participle of posse to be able, have power; potent 1, -ant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He braced himself for one of Lillian’s cold, puissant lectures to enfilade the dispirited citadel of his self-respect.
From Literature
In this age of rapidly melting glaciers, terrifying megafires and ever more puissant hurricanes, of acidifying and rising oceans, it is hard to believe that any further prod to climate action is needed.
From The Guardian
The play, he writes, is “smart, compact and stirring” and “seems destined to have a life as a puissant postscript to Ibsen’s masterwork.”
From Los Angeles Times
The play, which opens next week on Broadway in a different production, seems destined to have a life as a puissant postscript to Ibsen’s masterwork.
From Los Angeles Times
His black sorcerer was more puissant than all of Euron’s three, even if you threw them in a pot and boiled them down to one.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
