Meaning & use
impotent
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparableformalfigurative
Without the strength or influence to change a situation, however much one wants to.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb or before a noun: they felt impotent; impotent rage.
Patterns
- feel impotent
- be impotent against something
The council seemed impotent against the rising prices.
She watched the fire in impotent horror.
Without funding, the agency was impotent.
adjectivenot comparablemedical
Of a man, unable to have or keep an erection for sex.
Grammar: Describes males only and is used in medical contexts.
Certain medicines can make a man temporarily impotent.
The doctor explained that stress had left him impotent.
Being impotent can have both physical and mental causes.
Word forms
| comparative | more impotent |
|---|---|
| superlative | most impotent |
Common combinations
- feel impotent
- Parents can feel impotent when a child is ill.
- impotent rage
- He shook with impotent rage at the decision.
- politically impotent
- The committee became politically impotent after the vote.
- render impotent
- The new law rendered the regulator impotent.
- impotent fury
- She stared in impotent fury at the locked gate.
Synonyms and how they differ
- powerless
- Powerless is the plainer and more common word with the same sense and no medical meaning.
- helpless
- Helpless stresses being unable to defend or help oneself, rather than lacking authority.
- ineffectual
- Ineffectual describes something that fails to work, and it often points at a weak person or plan.
- toothless
- Toothless is informal and suits laws or bodies that look tough but can enforce nothing.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: impotent or important? impotent or sterile?
impotent vs important
Important means of great significance and shares the start of the word but has no connection in meaning.
impotent vs sterile
Sterile means unable to produce young, which differs from impotent in the medical sense.
Practice
The residents felt ___ as the factory kept polluting despite their complaints.
Choose one answer.
Impotent means unable to change things despite wanting to. Impatient only describes irritation at waiting and does not say they lack power.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “impotent”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.