powerlessness

English

Etymology

From powerless +‎ -ness.

Noun

powerlessness (usually uncountable, plural powerlessnesses)

1. The state or character of being powerless; absence or lack of power.

   Synonym: impotence

   Antonyms: power, powerfulness

   Coordinate term: weakness

   Near-synonym: helplessness

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 47:

     In July 1717, a commission established by Orléans to adjudicate the issue had emphatically denied the successoral claims of the two brothers, and the Regent declared himself in a state of ‘happy powerlessness to alienate the crown's domain’.

Translations

The state or character of being powerless

Belarusian: бяссі́лле n (bjassíllje) Chinese: Mandarin: 無力 / 无力 (zh) (wúlì) Czech: bezmocnost f Finnish: voimattomuus (fi) French: impuissance (fr) f German: Machtlosigkeit (de) f Hindi: असमर्थता (hi) f (asmarthatā), अक्षमता (hi) f (akṣamtā), अशक्ति (hi) f (aśakti) Hungarian: tehetetlenség (hu), gyengeség (hu), erőtlenség (hu) Irish: easpa cumhachta f, neamhchumhacht f, neamhéifeacht f Japanese: 無力 (ja) (むりょく, muryoku) Latin: impotentia Macedonian: немоќ (nemoḱ) Manx: neuchummaght f Maori: mieretanga Persian: ناتوانی (fa) (nâtavâni), ضعف (fa) (za'f) Polish: bezsiła f, bezsilność (pl) f Russian: бесси́лие (ru) n (bessílije) Sanskrit: अक्षमा (sa) f (akṣamā), अशक्ति (sa) f (aśakti) Spanish: impotencia (es) f Swedish: vanmakt (sv) c, maktlöshet (sv) c Ukrainian: безси́лля (uk) n (bezsýllja)

See also

• helplessness

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “powerlessness”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “powerlessness” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.