strength

The quality or degree of being strong.

Noun

  1. The quality or degree of being strong.
    • It requires great strength to lift heavy objects.
    • Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn. - c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    • He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their...

    Antonyms: weakness

  2. The intensity of a force or power; potency.
    • He had the strength of ten men.
    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it. - 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for...
  3. The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
    • God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 46:1:
    • […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […]. - 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the...
  4. A positive attribute.
    • to play to one's strengths
    • We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.
    • The compulsion to expose, renegotiate, or reinvent the strengths and weaknesses of dance tradition offers little in its final outcome to attract the average dance-goer. - 2013, Deborah Hay, My Body, The Buddhist, →ISBN,...

    Antonyms: weakness

  5. An armed force, a body of troops.
    • Thou princely leader of our English strength, Never so needful on the earth of France, - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
    • That done, dissever your united strengths, And part your mingled colours once again; - c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  6. A strong place; a stronghold.
    • All like himself rebellious, by whose aid This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deitie supream, us dispossest, He trusted to have seis’d […] - 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […]...
  7. The minimum ratio of the number of edges removed from a given graph to components created, over all possible removals.

Origin

From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).

Forms

strengths

Synonyms

ability asset capability expertise forte fortitude main potency power

Related

strong strongly

Derived

bandstrength bench strength bond strength brute strength compressive strength crushing strength dielectic strength dielectric strength fatigue strength feat of strength field strength fore-strength full-strength gather strength give me strength go from strength to strength impact strength industrial-strength industrial strength inner strength ionic strength linestrength magnetic field strength measure strength

Verb

  1. To strengthen (all senses).
    • ſtrengthed with all myght / thꝛowe hys gloꝛious power / vnto all pacience / and longe ſufferynge with ioyfulnes - 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter...
    • Then ſhalt thow perceave what it meaneth that the power of this wretched monſtre / muſt be ſtrengthed / by anothers power and not by his awne. - 1529, John Frith, A piſtle to the Chriſten reader […] :
    • In witnes wherof we haue cauſed this pꝛeſent wꝛiting to be ſtrengthed with the ſeal of our facultie[…] - 1550, Edward Halle, “King Henry the viij.”, in The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illuſtre Famelies of Lancaſtre and...

    Synonyms: anneal brace build up confirm enstrengthen fortify harden intend indurate invigorate munite nerve nerve up reinforce roborate steel strength strengthen thicken

Forms

strengths strengthing strengthed