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Knowledge Is Power: Defining Omnipotent
The word omnipotent made its way into English through Anglo-French, but it ultimately comes from a combination of the Latin prefix omni-, meaning "all," and the word potens, meaning "potent." The omni- prefix has also given us similar words such as omniscient (meaning "all-knowing") and omnivorous (describing one that eats both plants and animals). Although omnipotent is most often used in general contexts to mean "having virtually unlimited authority or influence" (as in "an omnipotent ruler"), it was originally applied specifically to the power held by an almighty deity. The word has been used as an English adjective since the 14th century, and since the 16th century it has also been used as a noun referring to one who is omnipotent.
Synonyms
Examples of omnipotent in a Sentence
Ron Chernow, Vanity Fair, May 1998
Whether or not the Big Bang truly implies that the universe was created out of nothing by an omnipotent deity in a wholly gratuitous act of love, it does demonstrate that the universe is, as philosophers say, contingent—that is, it need not have existed.
—Jim Holt, Harper's, November 1994
Tad fixes another round and by the time you all troop out of the bathroom you are feeling omnipotent.
—Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, 1984
the nearly universal religious belief that God is omnipotent and omniscient
Noun
He pursued his own thoughts without heeding me. 'Jane! you think me, I daresay, an irreligious dog: but my heart swells with gratitude to the beneficent God of this earth just now. … I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower—breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me.'
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847
Phil Hay, The Athletic, 9 Aug. 2024
For decades during and after the Cold War, Turkey’s secularist devlet baba was seen as omnipotent, powerful, and almighty.
—Soner Cagaptay, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2023
There is something so wonderfully obscene about having a town with hundreds of people living their lives, running into conflict, hoping for better, and your omnipotent self is stuck on which bookcase best fits this living room corner.
—Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 2 Aug. 2024
In Putin’s world view, however, countries like Germany don’t have their own autonomous, sovereign geopolitical interests—European capitals are effectively vassals to an omnipotent Washington.
—Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Omnipotent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/omnipotent. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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