as in helpless
unable to act or achieve one's purpose
I wish I could help you, but I am powerless in this situation
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of powerless
For all their efforts to convene well-meaning elites, the organizers of the Paris Peace Congress remained powerless to stop the relentless logic of an arms race playing out outside their control.
—
Billy Perrigo, Time, 17 Feb. 2026
Utility crews then patrol any powerless lines to find and correct the cause of the outage before restoring power, Core officials said.
—Lauren Penington, Denver Post, 17 Feb. 2026
But in the last days of the session, language was added to make local communities even more powerless over their own future growth.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 15 Feb. 2026
The women are powerless or peripheral.
—The Week Uk, TheWeek, 14 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for powerless
Billy Perrigo, Time, 17 Feb. 2026
Utility crews then patrol any powerless lines to find and correct the cause of the outage before restoring power, Core officials said.
—Lauren Penington, Denver Post, 17 Feb. 2026
But in the last days of the session, language was added to make local communities even more powerless over their own future growth.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 15 Feb. 2026
The women are powerless or peripheral.
—The Week Uk, TheWeek, 14 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for powerless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for powerless
Adjective
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Operating up top, Hagens fed Gasseau down low on the right side and Gasseau zipped a perfect cross-ice pass to Letourneau, who ripped it past a helpless Muszelik.—
Steve Conroy,
Boston Herald,
21 Mar. 2026
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Still helpless in the face of her new, ultrapublic life, and at a loss for how to re-center herself and her needs and wants within it, Carolyn has been spending most of her time in the loft.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
20 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Carrington said Ny'Leek died of cardiac arrest Thursday, a little more than a year after surviving a hit-and-run that left him paralyzed from the neck down.—
Ryan Hughes,
CBS News,
28 Mar. 2026
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The conflict has physically split the energy world into two paralyzed halves.—
Siddharth Misra,
Fortune,
28 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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An atmospheric river should track across California, even into southern California, by Tuesday, March 31, but is currently forecast to remain too weak to cause flooding issues, the WPC said.—
Doyle Rice,
USA Today,
28 Mar. 2026
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At the hospital in Dollow, mothers sat shoulder to shoulder on narrow beds holding frail children, some too weak to cry while others let out soft whimpers.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
27 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Powerless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/powerless. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.
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