strength
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //ˈstɹɛŋθ//
- /[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɛŋθ] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɛŋθ]/
- //ˈstɹɛnθ//
- /[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɛnθ] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɛnθ]/
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.
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 part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
- 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.
- 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.
[…] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […].
- 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.
Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on Twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go to that well often as an American diplomat. It’s hard to overstate the global soft power impact of America’s cultural diversity.”
- 5
obsoleteAn armed force, a body of troops.
Thou princely leader of our English strength, Never so needful on the earth of France,
That done, dissever your united strengths, And part your mingled colours once again;
- 6
obsoleteA 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 […]
- 7
The minimum ratio of the number of edges removed from a given graph to components created, over all possible removals.
Etymology
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”).
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo strengthen (all senses).
ſtrengthed with all myght / thꝛowe hys gloꝛious power / vnto all pacience / and longe ſufferynge with ioyfulnes
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.
In witnes wherof we haue cauſed this pꝛeſent wꝛiting to be ſtrengthed with the ſeal of our facultie[…]
Forms
- plural
- strengths
- past tense
- strengthed
- past participle
- strengthed
- present participle
- strengthing
- third person singular
- strengths