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IMPOTENCE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and feeble
Synonyms:
impotence; impotency; powerlessness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("impotence" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impotence"):
helplessness; impuissance; weakness (powerlessness revealed by an inability to act)
unpersuasiveness (inability to persuade)
uninterestingness (inability to capture or hold one's interest)
voicelessness (having no voice in the management or control of affairs)
paper tiger (the nature of a person or organization that appears powerful but is actually powerless and ineffectual)
ineffectiveness; ineffectuality; ineffectualness (lacking the power to be effective)
Derivation:
impotent (lacking power or ability)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An inability (usually of the male animal) to copulate
Synonyms:
impotence; impotency
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("impotence" is a kind of...):
infertility; sterility (the state of being unable to produce offspring; in a woman it is an inability to conceive; in a man it is an inability to impregnate)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impotence"):
ED; erectile dysfunction; male erecticle dysfunction (impotence resulting from a man's inability to have or maintain an erection of his penis)
Antonym:
potence (the state of being potent; a male's capacity to have sexual intercourse)
Derivation:
impotent ((of a male) unable to copulate)
Context examples:
It usually occurs in males and is characterized by fatigue in the hips, thighs, or calves on exercising, absence of pulsation in the femoral arteries, impotence, and often pallor and coldness of the lower limbs.
(Leriche Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
The symptoms and signs may include rapidly developing adiposity of the face, neck, and trunk, kyphosis caused by osteoporosis of the spine, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, amenorrhea, hypertrichosis in females, impotence in males, dusky complexion with purple markings, polycythemia, pain in the abdomen and back, and muscular wasting and weakness.
(Cushing syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
The monster saw my determination in my face and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
