different between power vs scope

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sk??p/
• IPA^(key): /?sko?p/
• Hyphenation: scope
• Rhymes: -??p

Etymology 1

From Italian scopo (“purpose”), from Latin scopus (“target”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (skopós), from ????????? (sképtomai), from Proto-Indo-European *spe?-. Etymologically related to skeptic and spectrum.

Noun

scope (countable and uncountable, plural scopes)

1. The breadth, depth or reach of a subject; a domain.
2. (weaponry) A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.

   Synonym: telescopic sight

   • 2014, Sgt. Jack Coughlin, Donald A. Davis, On Scope: A Sniper Novel, St. Martin's Press (?ISBN)

3. Opportunity; broad range; degree of freedom.
   • 2001, Mike Hughes, Andy Vass, Strategies for Closing the Learning Gap (page 19)

     It is also true that the vast majority of teachers are highly skilled and experienced professionals who are already doing an excellent job in the classroom, thus leaving relatively little scope for improvement.

   • 2014, Mary Kitt-Neel, Lie Down in Princess Position

     She had in fact put in a resume at another firm that gave their graphics team much more scope.

4. (programming) The region of program source code in which a given identifier is meaningful, or a given object can be accessed.
   • 2001, Mary Campione, Kathy Walrath, Alison Huml, The Java Tutorial: A Short Course on the Basics, Addison-Wesley Professional (?ISBN), page 72

5. (logic) The shortest sub-wff of which a given instance of a logical connective is a part.
6. (linguistics) The region of an utterance to which some modifying element applies.

7. (slang) A periscope, telescope, microscope or oscilloscope.
8. (medicine, colloquial) Any medical procedure that ends in the suffix -scopy, such as endoscopy, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, etc.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• in-scope
• scopeless

Descendants

• ? Irish: scóp

Translations

Verb

scope (third-person singular simple present scopes, present participle scoping, simple past and past participle scoped)

1. (informal, transitive) To perform a cursory investigation of; scope out.
2. (medicine, colloquial) To perform any medical procedure that ends in the suffix -scopy, such as endoscopy, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, etc.

   The surgeon will scope the football player's knee to repair damage to a ligament.

3. (programming) To limit (an object or variable) to a certain region of program source code.

   If we locally scope the user's login name, it won't be accessible from outside this function.

4. (informal) To examine under a microscope.

   The entomologist explained that he could not tell what species of springtail we were looking at without scoping it.

5. (birdwatching, informal) To observe a bird using a spotting scope.

Translations

Etymology 2

Latin scopa

Noun

scope (plural scopes)

1. (obsolete) A bundle, as of twigs.

References

Anagrams

• OPSEC, Pecos, copes, copse

Italian

Noun

scope f

1. plural of scopa

Anagrams

• cespo, pesco, pescò, speco

Latin

Noun

scope

1. vocative singular of scopus