superpower
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
superpower (countable and uncountable, plural superpowers)
- (countable) A sovereign state with dominant status on the globe and a very advanced military, especially the United States or formerly the Soviet Union.
- 1990 February 5, William Safire, “Staying a Superpower”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Our superpower competition will be reunified Germany (perhaps together with its European satellites) and expanding Japan (perhaps allied with China, if they can bring that off).
- 1999, David Held, Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture, page 97:
- The year 1945 marked the end of Europe's global hegemony and confirmed the US and the Soviet Union as global superpowers.
- (countable, fiction) An extraordinary physical or mental ability, especially possessed by a superhero or supervillain.
- 1994, C. J. Lee, Caldwell Lee the Poet to Be: The Forthright Omnipotence Era, Dorrance Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 46:
- Administered in such a way, in that superpowers it assures.
- 2014, Christina Lauren, Dirty Rowdy Thing, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 258:
- This is his superpower, I think. The comic geek always has one, and Oliver's is a poker face that would leave even the Holy Trinity guessing what he's thinking.
- 2021 December 6, Givinuplol, belugasareneat, “What superpower you would like?”, in reddit.com:
- If I could have a superpower id[sic] want to be able to teleport. I hate walking and driving gives me headaches.
- (obsolete, uncountable) Electricity generated in a large plant that is tied into a regional network, on a larger scale than was common in the early years of commercial electricity production.
- (mathematics) A tetration.
- Synonym: power tower
- Antonym: superlogarithm
- (uncountable) Excessive or superior power.
Derived terms
Translations
sovereign state
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fictional extraordinary ability
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Verb
superpower (third-person singular simple present superpowers, present participle superpowering, simple past and past participle superpowered)
- (transitive) To give extraordinary powers to.
Further reading
superpower on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
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