Noun

Singular power

Plural countable and uncountable; plural powers

power (countable and uncountable; plural powers)

1. (uncountable) Physical force or strength.

   He needed a lot of power to hit the ball out of the stadium.

2. (uncountable) Control and influence over another entity and its actions.

   He exerted his power upon his subordinates to obtain illicit, personal satisfaction.

   The party has won power thanks to the influence of its charismatic leader.

3. (uncountable) electricity supply.

   After the pylons collapsed, this town was without power for a few days.

4. (uncountable) (physics) A measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy.
5. (uncountable, physics) A rate to magnify an optical image by a lens or mirror.

   We need a microscope with higher power.

6. (Biblical) in Christian angelology, the fourth level of angels, ranked above archangels and below principalities
7. (mathematics) A product of equal factors. Notation and usage: x, read as "x to the power of n" or "x to the nth power", denotes x × x × ... × x, in which x appears n times, where n is called the exponent; the definition is extended to non-integer and complex exponents.
8. (set theory) Cardinality.

Power refers broadly to any ability to effect change or exert control over either things or people, subjects or objects.

Other uses

Social sciences

• Power (philosophy)
• Political power, power held by a person or group in a country's political system, such as
  • Executive power
  • Judicial power
  • Legislative power
• Power in international relations refers to the ability of national states to influence or control other states; states themselves may be referred to as powers, and may be further distinguished as: historical powers, middle powers, regional powers, great powers, superpowers, or hyperpowers
• Economic power, multiple meanings
• Power (communication), power in interpersonal communication

Quotes regarding power.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Michel Foucault
  • 1.2 Mao Zedong
• 2 Attributed
• 3 External links

Sourced

• "All power corrupts, absolute power is even more fun"
  • Simon Travaglia, The Operator From Hell, 1997 Part 2, "The PFY scores top marks in the all important 'how to be an Operator From Hell' test"

• "If you were handed power on a plate you'd be left fighting over a plate."
  • Tom Stoppard, Squaring the Circle (1984)

• "Power corrupts, PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
  • Ed Tufte, Wired, issue 11:09, September 2003

• "Power corrupts only the few because only the few have power."
  • Leonid S. Sukhorukov, All About Everything (2005)

• "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."
  • George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

• "Power is the type of thing most people don't think about, until it's taken away."
  • Mary Alice (off voice), Desperate Housewives. Season 3, Episode 19: "God, that's good".

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Thu Jul 9 17:18:14 2009