potency

Noun

1. Power, authority.
   • I would to heauen I had your potencie, And you were Isabell: should it then be thus? No: I would tell what 'twere to be a Iudge, and what a prisoner. - c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for...
   • Beset on either hand by potencies greater than himself, he becomes the battle-ground of immortals. - 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. The Orestea: III. Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 206:
   • The doctor is the modern master of the mythological realm, the knower of all the secret ways and words of potency. - 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published...
2. The ability or capacity to perform something

   1. (usually of men) Sexual virility: the ability to become erect or achieve orgasm.

      • Pliny the Elder states that, to increase sexual potency, the right testis of an ass should be worn in a bracelet. - 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 49:

      Antonyms: impotence

3. Concentration; strength
4. Potentiality, ability, capacity.
5. Cardinality.