Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Possessing inner or physical strength; powerful.
  • adjective Exerting or capable of exerting strong physiological or chemical effects.
  • adjective Exerting or capable of exerting strong influence; cogent.
  • adjective Having great control or authority.
  • adjective Able to achieve and maintain an erection that allows for sexual intercourse. Used of a male.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Powerful; possessed of inherent strength.
  • Powerful in a moral sense; having great influence; cogent; prevailing; convincing: as, potent arguments; potent interest.
  • Having great authority, control, or dominion.
  • In heraldry, divided or included by a line or lines forming a series of potents: as, a fesse potent. [In this sense originally potenté.]
  • noun A prince; a potentate.
  • noun A crutch; a walking-staff.
  • noun In heraldry: A figure resembling the head of a crutch, and consisting of a parallelogram laid horizontally on the top of a small square.
  • noun A fur made up of patches or figures.
  • noun In watch-making, a journal plate or bearing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A prince; a potentate.
  • noun obsolete A staff or crutch.
  • noun (Her.) One of the furs; a surface composed of patches which are supposed to represent crutch heads; they are always alternately argent and azure, unless otherwise specially mentioned.
  • noun (Her.) a fur differing from potent in the arrangement of the patches.
  • adjective Producing great physical effects; forcible; powerful' efficacious.
  • adjective Having great authority, control, or dominion; puissant; mighty; influential.
  • adjective Powerful, in an intellectual or moral sense; having great influence
  • adjective (Her.) See Illust. (7) of Cross.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Possessing strength
  • adjective Being effective in small quantities.
  • adjective Having a sharp or offensive taste.
  • adjective of a male able to procreate.
  • adjective very powerful or effective.
  • noun heraldry A heraldic fur formed by a regular tessellation of blue and white T shapes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having or wielding force or authority
  • adjective (of a male) capable of copulation
  • adjective having great influence
  • adjective having a strong physiological or chemical effect

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin potēns, potent-, present participle of posse, to be able; see poti- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin potens ("powerful, strong, potent"), present participle of posse ("to be able"), from potis ("able, powerful, originally a lord, master").

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Examples

  • Third receiver in potent passing game and a solid punt returner whose offseason work set an example for other young players.

    Annual All-Joe team: Honoring those who won little acclaim 2009

  • But it's what we're used to, and still remain potent symbols in an age devoid of symbolism.

    Liturgical Wedding Crashers 2009

  • "Like its similarly underrated cousin, Birth, Joshua makes up in potent atmosphere and formal mastery what it lacks in narrative logic; unlike Birth, however, it's further enhanced by two superlative adult performances (courtesy Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga) that invest a ludicrous premise with conviction and behavioral nuance."

    GreenCine Daily: Sundance. Joshua. 2007

  • I think the Reload power's more potent from a protective standpoint, but the Google-fu stands to make me more powerful in the world.

    Genie, Give Me A Wish 2005

  • “White Disaster,” some called the potent dwarven drink.

    Stormblade Berberick, Nancy Varian 1988

  • These results on depancreatized dogs showed beyond doubt that the antidiabetic hormone was present in potent form in the extracts, and the time seemed ripe to investigate their action on the clinical forms of diabetes.

    John Macleod - Nobel Lecture 1965

  • However, when the Redskins, one year removed from 4-12 and one week after a two-touchdown loss to the Rams, beat the Eagles, previously presumed to be potent, that is fairly stunning.

    Redskins' Donovan McNabb is the homecoming king in Philadelphia, but he wasn't alone Thomas Boswell 2010

  • Alcohol is particularly dangerous for teenagers because it is so pervasive in our adult world (and in most human cultures generally), but is not identified as the potent drug it is.

    Sara Whitman: Stoned and Drunk and Messing with Tigers 2008

  • It's very potent, which is good, given the cost, and it puts me in a wonderful mood.

    Anise and Licorice- Love It or Loathe It, Some Gotta Have It Marina Geigert 2008

  • Using neuroscience and the most advanced brain-scanning technique available today—the fMRI—global research institute Millward Brown studied the brains of twenty men and women in the UK to find out whether the “Royal Mail experiment” had created true emotional engagement, that is to say, a potent emotional response, in consumers.

    Brand Sense Martin Lindstrom 2005

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