as in inability
the lack of sufficient ability, power, or means
cursed his powerlessness to affect the outcome of his friend's life-threatening illness
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Recent Examples of powerlessness
Would-be autocrats create environments of fear and powerlessness, using intimidation, overwhelming force or political and legal attacks, and other coercive tactics to force acquiescence and chill democratic pushback.
—
Shelley Inglis, The Conversation, 19 Oct. 2025
This grim reality evokes a sense of sorrow and powerlessness among women in Paina Bujurg.
—Aishwarya S. Iyer, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2025
That type of breaking is undisciplined indulgence that is normally meant to terrorize and threaten people and is driven by people who operate from a place of smallness, ego fragility, and fear of their own powerlessness.
—Brené Brown, Fortune, 14 Oct. 2025
Koestler suggests that a stroke of good fortune, or a vision of the sublime, may evoke a sense of powerlessness — of being rapt, overwhelmed, enraptured, entranced — which overlaps with the helplessness of loss and defeat, and which evokes a similar surrender.
—Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
Here are some steps to prevent your team from succumbing to the sense of powerlessness associated with the Great Lock-In trend.
—Juliette Han, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
There was a clear vocabulary to define consent within OneTaste, but one witness after another spoke of pressure and powerlessness.
—Thessaly La Force, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2025
An icy wave of powerlessness threatens to drown me.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 7 Aug. 2025
Shelley Inglis, The Conversation, 19 Oct. 2025
This grim reality evokes a sense of sorrow and powerlessness among women in Paina Bujurg.
—Aishwarya S. Iyer, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2025
That type of breaking is undisciplined indulgence that is normally meant to terrorize and threaten people and is driven by people who operate from a place of smallness, ego fragility, and fear of their own powerlessness.
—Brené Brown, Fortune, 14 Oct. 2025
Koestler suggests that a stroke of good fortune, or a vision of the sublime, may evoke a sense of powerlessness — of being rapt, overwhelmed, enraptured, entranced — which overlaps with the helplessness of loss and defeat, and which evokes a similar surrender.
—Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
Here are some steps to prevent your team from succumbing to the sense of powerlessness associated with the Great Lock-In trend.
—Juliette Han, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
There was a clear vocabulary to define consent within OneTaste, but one witness after another spoke of pressure and powerlessness.
—Thessaly La Force, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2025
An icy wave of powerlessness threatens to drown me.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for powerlessness
inability
Noun
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That’s another example of this team’s inability to win on the margins.—
Matthew Fairburn,
New York Times,
9 Nov. 2025
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If there's been one issue for the Jets over the past few decades, it's been their inability to find a franchise quarterback.—
Jon Conahan,
MSNBC Newsweek,
7 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Powerlessness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/powerlessness. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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