different between power vs conduct

English

Alternative forms

• powre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin *pot?re, from Latin possum, posse (“to be able”); see potent. Compare Modern French pouvoir. Displaced native Old English anweald.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pa??(?)/, /?pa?.?(?)/
  • (with triphthong smoothing) IPA^(key): /pa?/, /pa?/, /p??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?pa?.?/, /?pa??/, [?p?a???], [?p?a???]
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?), -a??(?)
• Hyphenation: pow?er

Noun

power (countable and uncountable, plural powers)

1. Ability to do or undergo something.
   • 2018, Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (page 74)

     If it is spirits who have power to suffer, it seems they would also have active powers to think and will.

2. (social) Ability to coerce, influence or control.
   1. (countable) Ability to affect or influence.

      • An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.

      • Thwackum, on the contrary, maintained that the human mind, since the fall, was nothing but a sink of iniquity, till purified and redeemed by grace. […] The favourite phrase of the former, was the natural beauty of virtue; that of the latter, was the divine power of grace.

      • 1998, Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

        Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present.

   2. Control or coercion, particularly legal or political (jurisdiction).
      • 1949, Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

        The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. [...] We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

      • 2005, Columbia Law Review, April

        In the face of expanding federal power, California in particular struggled to maintain control over its Chinese population.
   3. (metonymically, chiefly in the plural) The people in charge of legal or political power, the government.

      Synonym: powers that be

   4. (metonymically) An influential nation, company, or other such body.
3. (physical, uncountable) Effectiveness.
   1. Physical force or strength.

   2. Electricity or a supply of electricity.
   3. A measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy.
   4. The strength by which a lens or mirror magnifies an optical image.

4. (colloquial, dated) A large amount or number.

   • The threatning words of duke Robert comming at the last to king Henries eares, caused him foorthwith to conceiue verie sore displeasure against a power of men sent into Normandie.
5. Any of the elementary forms or parts of machines: three primary (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley) and three secondary (the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw).

   the mechanical powers

6. (physics, mechanics) A measure of the effectiveness that a force producing a physical effect has over time. If linear, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the displacement of or in an object) ÷ time. If rotational, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the angle of displacement) ÷ time.
7. (mathematics)
   1. A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): ${\displaystyle x^{n}}$, read as "${\displaystyle x}$ to the power of ${\displaystyle n}$" or the like, is called a power and denotes the product ${\displaystyle x\times x\times \cdots \times x}$, where ${\displaystyle x}$ appears ${\displaystyle n}$ times in the product; ${\displaystyle x}$ is called the base and ${\displaystyle n}$ the exponent.
   2. (set theory) Cardinality.
   3. (statistics) The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.
8. (biblical, in the plural) In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with "power": electric, nuclear, optical, mechanical, political, absolute, corporate, institutional, military, economic, solar, magic, magical, huge, physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, sexual, seductive, coercive, erotic, natural, cultural, positive, negative, etc.

Synonyms

Antonyms

• impotence
• weakness

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? German: Power
• ? Welsh: p?er

Translations

Verb

power (third-person singular simple present powers, present participle powering, simple past and past participle powered)

1. (transitive) To provide power for (a mechanical or electronic device).

   This CD player is powered by batteries.

2. (transitive) To hit or kick something forcefully.
3. To enable or provide the impetus for.

Derived terms

• power down
• power up
• empower

Translations

Adjective

power (comparative more power, superlative most power)

1. (Singapore, colloquial) Impressive.

Further reading

• power at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• powre

German

Etymology 1

From French pauvre, from Latin pauper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?po?v?r/, [?po?v?]
• Hyphenation: po?wer

Adjective

power (comparative powerer, superlative am powersten)

1. (regional, informal) poor, miserable

Declension

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pa???r/, [?pa???]
• Homophone: Power

Verb

power

1. singular imperative of powern
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of powern

Further reading

• “power” in Duden online

English

Etymology

From Late Latin conductus (“defense, escort”), from Latin conductus, perfect passive participle of cond?c? (“bring together”); see also conduce. Doublet of conduit.

Pronunciation

• (noun)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?nd?kt/
  • (US) enPR: k?n'd?kt, IPA^(key): /?k?nd?kt/
• (verb)
  • enPR: k?nd?kt', IPA^(key): /k?n?d?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Noun

conduct (countable and uncountable, plural conducts)

1. The act or method of controlling or directing
   • 1785, William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy

     There are other restrictions imposed upon the conduct of war, not by the law of nature primarily, but by the laws of war first, and by the law of nature as seconding and ratifying the laws of war.

   • 1843, Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy

     the conduct of the state, the administration of its affairs, its policy, and its laws, are for more uncertain

2. Skillful guidance or management; leadership
   • 1722 (first printed) Edmund Waller, Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons

     Conduct of armies is a prince's art.

   • 1769, William Robertson, The history of the reign of Emperor Charles V

     […] attacked the Spaniards […] with great impetuosity, but with so little conduct, that his forces were totally routed.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge Chapter 49

     At the head of that division which had Westminster Bridge for its approach to the scene of action, Lord George Gordon took his post; with Gashford at his right hand, and sundry ruffians, of most unpromising appearance, forming a kind of staff about him. The conduct of a second party, whose route lay by Blackfriars, was entrusted to a committee of management

3. behaviour; the manner of behaving

   Good conduct will be rewarded and likewise poor conduct will be punished.

   • 1840, James Fenimore Cooper, The Pathfinder

     when she came to recall the affectionate and natural manner of the young Indian girl, and all the evidences of good faith and sincerity she had seen in her conduct during the familiar intercourse of their journey, she rejected the idea with the unwillingness of a generous disposition to believe ill of others

   • 1848, Thomas Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II

     All these difficulties were increased by the conduct of Shrewsbury.

   • 1711, John Dryden, Tenth Satire (translation from Latin of Juvenal)

     What in the conduct of our life appears / So well designed, so luckily begun, / But when we have our wish, we wish undone?

4. (of a literary work) plot; storyline
   • c. 1800, Thomas Macaulay, Essays, critical and miscellaneous

     The book of Job, indeed, in conduct and diction, bears a considerable resemblance to some of his dramas.

5. (obsolete) convoy; escort; person who accompanies another
   • 1599, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour

     I will be your conduct.
6. (archaic) Something which carries or conveys anything; a channel; an instrument.

Synonyms

• (act or method of controlling or directing): control, guidance, management
• (manner of guiding or carrying oneself): bearing, behavior/behaviour, deportment, demeanor/demeanour,
• (plot of a literary work): action, plot, storyline

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

conduct (third-person singular simple present conducts, present participle conducting, simple past and past participle conducted)

1. (archaic, transitive) To lead, or guide; to escort.
   • 1634, John Milton, Comus

     I can conduct you, lady, to a low / But loyal cottage, where you may be safe.

2. (transitive) To lead; to direct; to be in charge of (people or tasks)

   The commander conducted thousands of troops.

   to conduct the affairs of a kingdom

   • 1856-1858, William Hickling Prescott, History of the Reign of Phillip II

     the Turks, however efficient they may have been in field operations, had little skill as engineers, and no acquaintance with the true principles of conducting a siege

3. (transitive) (reflexively to conduct oneself) To behave.

   He conducted himself well.

4. (transitive) To serve as a medium for conveying; to transmit (heat, light, electricity, etc.)
   • 1975, Clive M. Countryman, Heat-Its Role in Wildland Fire Part 2

     Water and many other liquids do not conduct heat well. Wildland fuels in general, wood, and wood products conduct heat slowly, and so do soil and rocks.

5. (transitive, music) To direct, as the leader in the performance of a musical composition.
   • 2006, Michael R. Waters with Mark Long and William Dickens, Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne

     For a while, Walter Pohlmann, a well-known German conductor, conducted the orchestra in Compound 3. Later, Willi Mets, who had conducted the world-renowned Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Compound 3 orchestra.

6. (intransitive) To act as a conductor (as of heat, electricity, etc.); to carry.
7. (transitive) To carry out (something organized)

Synonyms

• (lead or guide): accompany, escort, guide, lead, steer, belead
• (direct): direct, lead, manage, oversee, run, supervise, belead
• (reflexively: to behave): act, behave, carry on
• (to serve as a medium for conveying): carry, convey, transmit

Derived terms

Translations