English

Adjective

puissant ‎(comparative more puissant, superlative most puissant)

1. (archaic or literary) Powerful, mighty, having authority.
   • 1599 — Shakespeare, Hen V i 2

     Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, / And with your puissant arm renew their feats.

   • 1667 — John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I

     For who can yet believe, though after loss,
     That all these puissant legions, whose exile
     Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend,
     Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Part I, Chapter V

     I cried in a loud voice, "Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!"

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 24

     How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?

   • 1961 - Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

     In fact the titles could be anything-or (with some of the most puissant) no title at all...

Translations

Related terms

• puissance

Anagrams

• snapsuit

French

Etymology

From the verb pouvoir, or from the present participle of Old French puissant, pussant, formed with the stem puis- in conjugated forms of the verb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɥisɑ̃/

Adjective

puissant m ‎(feminine singular puissante, masculine plural puissants, feminine plural puissantes)

1. powerful; mighty

Related terms

• pouvoir
• puissance

Old French

Alternative forms

• poissant
• pussant

Etymology

From the present participle of pooir, povoir, formed with the stem puis- in conjugated forms of the verb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɥisãnt/

Adjective

puissant m ‎(oblique and nominative feminine singular puissant or puissante)

1. powerful; mighty

Declension

Related terms

• puissance

Descendants

• English: puissant (borrowed)
• Middle French: puissant
  • French: puissant