湖边社【每日一词】omnipotent - adj. 全能的；无所不能的；有无限权力的
Definition:
1 of 2 adjective
1: often capitalized : ALMIGHTY sense 1
2: having virtually unlimited authority or influence
an omnipotent ruler
3: obsolete : ARRANT
omnipotently adverb
omnipotent
2 of 2 noun
1: one who has unlimited power or authority : one who is omnipotent
2: capitalized : GOD sense 1
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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
Adjective - all-powerful,almighty
Examples of omnipotent in a Sentence
Adjective
Rockefeller mostly left the uncertain task of drilling to thousands of independent producers, who then competed furiously to sell him crude oil at the cheapest possible price. As a result, he was loathed by the drillers, who saw him as an omnipotent deity shadowing their lives.
—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
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Inspired by the likes of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Jair Bolsonaro, conservative leaders now embrace a distinctly authoritarian form of government under the direct control of a nearly omnipotent president.
—James Goodwin, The New Republic, 30 Aug. 2023
Although drones are hardly omnipotent, there is tremendous potential to improve their autonomous capabilities to match and perhaps outpace future countermeasures, possibly indefinitely.
—Kenneth M. Pollack, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
