potency

Borrowed from Latin potentia. Doublet of Potenza.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpəʊtənsi/

• Audio (Southern England)

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potency (countable and uncountable, plural potencies)

1. Power, authority.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 67, column 2:

     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.

2. The ability or capacity to perform something
   1. (usually of men) Sexual virility: the ability to become erect or achieve orgasm.

      Antonym: impotence

3. (of alcoholic drinks, of drugs) Concentration; strength
4. Potentiality, ability, capacity.
5. (mathematics, dated) Cardinality.

• orgastic potency

• potence
• potent
• potentate
• potential
• potentiality
• impotent
• impotence