Potency

How to spell potency

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce potency

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does potency mean?

1. nounThe strength, power, or effectiveness of something, especially a drug, force, or influence.

Potency in a sentence

• The pharmacist warned that the medication loses potency once the bottle is opened.

• The brewery tests each batch to confirm the potency of the alcohol.

Where does potency come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin potentia, meaning 'power' or 'capacity to act', which was built on the participle potens, 'being able' or 'powerful'. That in turn traces back to the verb posse, 'to be able', a contraction of an older phrase meaning roughly 'to be master of'. English absorbed potency in the fifteenth century, partly through the related Latin abstract noun potentia and partly under the influence of Old French, and it carried the sense of strength, force, or effectiveness. The same posse root is the engine behind a whole family of English words, including 'potent', 'potential', 'possible', and even 'omnipotent', all sharing the idea of power or capability. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle and ending: the schwa before the soft c is easy to mishear, and the -ency ending can be confused with -ancy.

How the word is built

• pot- (from Latin potens: powerful, able)
• -ency (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)