different between power vs interest

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

Alternative forms

• enterest (obsolete)
• interess (obsolete)
• intherest (pronunciation spelling, suggesting an Irish accent)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??nt???st/, /??nt??st/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??nt???st/, /??nt??st/, /??nt???st/, /??nt??st/, /??nt??st/
• Hyphenation: in?ter?est

Noun

interest (usually uncountable, plural interests)

1. (uncountable, finance) The price paid for obtaining, or price received for providing, money or goods in a credit transaction, calculated as a fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed. [from earlier 16th c.]

2. (uncountable, finance) Any excess over and above an exact equivalent
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act IV, sc 3:

     You shall have your desires with interest

3. (uncountable) A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity. [from later 18th c.]
4. (uncountable) Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
5. (countable) An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor.

6. (countable) Something or someone one is interested in.

7. (uncountable) Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance
   • 1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Friend, Essay VIII:

     The conscience, indeed, is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest.

8. (obsolete, rare) Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.
9. (usually in the plural) The persons interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively.

Synonyms

• (fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed): cost of money, oker

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

interest (third-person singular simple present interests, present participle interesting, simple past and past participle interested)

1. To engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing.

   It might interest you to learn that others have already tried that approach.

   Action films don't really interest me.

2. (obsolete, often impersonal) To be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite.
   • 1633, John Ford, Perkin Warbeck

     Or rather, gracious sir, / Create me to this glory, since my cause / Doth interest this fair quarrel.

3. (obsolete) To cause or permit to share.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     The mystical communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interested in those precious blessings which any one of them receiveth at God's hands.

Antonyms

• bore
• disinterest

Derived terms

• interested
• interesting

Translations

Further reading

• "interest" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 171.

Anagrams

• Steinert, ernstite, inertest, insetter, interset, sternite, tres-tine, trientes

Dutch

Alternative forms

• interesse (obsolete)
• intrest

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Doublet of interesse.

Pronunciation

Noun

interest m (plural interesten, diminutive interestje n)

1. (finance) interest

Synonyms

• rente

Latin

Verb

interest

1. third-person singular present active indicative of intersum

References

• interest in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• interest in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• interest in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Middle French

Noun

interest m (plural interests)

1. interest (great attention and concern from someone or something)