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powerless

[ pou-er-lis ]

/ ˈpaʊ ər lɪs /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR powerless ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

unable to produce an effect: a disease against which modern medicine is virtually powerless.

lacking power to act; helpless: His legs crumpled, and he was powerless to rise.

Origin of powerless

First recorded in 1545–55; power + -less

SYNONYMS FOR powerless

1 ineffective.

2 feeble, impotent, prostrate, infirm.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR powerless ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM powerless

pow·er·less·ly, adverb pow·er·less·ness, noun

Words nearby powerless

powerboating, powerbroker, powered, powerful, powerhouse, powerless, powerlifting, powers, powers that be, the, powfagged, powhatan

Example sentences from the Web for powerless

He had been scared and powerless to protect himself, and Moscow had been silent.

How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Radicalized Putin |Masha Gessen |November 9, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Unable to make it to a hospital, or too afraid, parents are dying at home alongside kids who are powerless to save them.

Liberia’s Ebola Orphans |Abby Haglage |October 14, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Hanifa and her father and mother and brother spent 10 days on the mountain, fearing for the girls, but powerless to help them.

Hanifa's Story: Her Five Sisters Taken by ISIS to Be Sold or Worse |Christine van den Toorn |August 19, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Mayor Ben West met them there, and repeated his usual explanation of how the city was powerless to change segregation.

Why We’ll Always Need a Civil Rights Movement |Sally Kohn |July 15, 2014 |DAILY BEAST

The Bill of Rights, and especially the First Amendment, were intended to protect the powerless from the tyranny of the powerful.

The Supreme Court Turns the First Amendment Into a Weapon for Corporations |Sally Kohn |July 8, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Evil is devised against you—evil you are powerless now to resist.

Pabo, The Priest |Sabine Baring-Gould
But Mrs. Greenow with a word or two had settled it all, and Mr. Cheesacre had found himself to be powerless.

Can You Forgive Her? |Anthony Trollope
His heart is with the good cause, though his arm is powerless.

The Last Penny and Other Stories |T. S. Arthur
Two empires, or rather an empress and a minister, deeply hate us but they are powerless!

The Royal Life Guard |Alexander Dumas (pere)
No wife in this parish is so poor as I; powerless in the folds of a serpent.

A Terrible Temptation |Charles Reade

British Dictionary definitions for powerless

powerless

/ (ˈpaʊəlɪs) /

adjective

without power or authority

Derived forms of powerless

powerlessly, adverb powerlessness, noun