Superpower

How to spell superpower

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce superpower

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does superpower mean?

1. nounA nation with overwhelming military, economic, and political influence on a global scale.
2. nounAn extraordinary personal ability, especially one beyond normal human limits in fiction.

Superpower in a sentence

• The lecture compared how each superpower managed its sphere of influence in the twentieth century.

• The child wished for the superpower of flight after watching the film.

• Analysts debated whether the country could ever rival an established superpower.

• In the comic, her superpower let her become invisible at will.

Where does superpower come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a compound built on the prefix super-, which comes from Latin super meaning 'above' or 'over', and the noun power, which travelled into English through Old French poeir or pouair, ultimately from Latin posse meaning 'to be able'. The prefix super- has long been used in English to mark something that exceeds or sits above the ordinary, as in superior and supersede. The political sense, naming a state with overwhelming global influence, was coined in the mid twentieth century, becoming common after the Second World War to describe nations like the United States and the Soviet Union. The comic-book sense, an extraordinary personal ability, grew alongside the rise of superhero fiction in the same era. Because the word is simply super plus power, its spelling holds no real trap beyond remembering it is a single closed compound with no hyphen.

How the word is built

• super- (above, beyond)
• power (ability, strength)