as in power
the ability to exert effort for the accomplishment of a task
the president pledged to put the full puissance of the nation into the war effort
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Recent Examples of puissance
The reboot arrives at the peak of reggaeton’s pop puissance, and rightfully incorporates a lot more of the genre and its offshoots — Latin trap included.
—
Washington Post, 26 Nov. 2021
Which of you has the puissance to short-term deep-six me?
—Henry Alford, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2021
The doctrine’s puissance lies in the separation of powers.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 14 Jan. 2020
Over the years, when French leaders have called for a Europe puissance (European power), this has often sounded suspiciously like code for French hegemonic ambitions.
—The Economist, 7 Nov. 2019
There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus.
—John E. McIntyre, baltimoresun.com, 29 Aug. 2017
Washington Post, 26 Nov. 2021
Which of you has the puissance to short-term deep-six me?
—Henry Alford, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2021
The doctrine’s puissance lies in the separation of powers.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 14 Jan. 2020
Over the years, when French leaders have called for a Europe puissance (European power), this has often sounded suspiciously like code for French hegemonic ambitions.
—The Economist, 7 Nov. 2019
There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus.
—John E. McIntyre, baltimoresun.com, 29 Aug. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for puissance
Noun
-
The way their dynamic is structured, Colin fears that one wrong move could bring things to an end, which merely reinforces Ray’s power over him.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
18 May 2025
-
At the time of writing, some 50,000 were still without power in Missouri, according to PowerOutage.us, a service that tracks disruptions.—
Joe Edwards,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 May 2025
Noun
-
The Celtics’ greatest strength and greatest flaw is their persistence.—
Jared Weiss,
New York Times,
11 May 2025
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In the first half of the 20th century, even as labor unions gained strength elsewhere, there was a fear of giving federal workers too much say over how the nation's laws were carried out.—
Andrea Hsu,
NPR,
11 May 2025
Noun
-
Solar thermal setups capture the Sun's heat rather than its light, use reflectors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, and convert solar radiation directly into heat energy.—
Abhimanyu Ghoshal,
New Atlas,
18 May 2025
-
However neither a wether delay or a temporary evacuation could dampen the crowd's sky-high energy throughout the night.—
Caché McClay,
USA Today,
18 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Puissance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/puissance. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
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