different between strong vs ponderous

English

Alternative forms

• strang (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English strong, strang, from Old English strong, strang (“strong, powerful, mighty, able; firm, constant, resolute, strenuous, hardy; hard, severe, fierce, stern, strict; bold, brave; valid, assured; effective, producing a great effect, potent; earnest; arduous, violent”), from Proto-Germanic *strangaz (“tight, strict, straight, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *streng?- (“taut, stiff, tight”). Cognate with Scots strang (“strong”), Saterland Frisian strang, West Frisian string (“austere, strict, harsh, severe, stern, stark, tough”), Dutch streng (“strict, severe, tight”), German streng (“strict, severe, austere”), Swedish sträng, strang (“severe, strict, harsh”), Norwegian strang (“strong, harsh, bitter”), Norwegian streng (“strong, hard”), Icelandic strangur (“strict”), Latin string? (“tighten”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: str?ng, IPA^(key): /st???/, [st??????], [?t??????]
• (US) enPR: strông, IPA^(key): /st???/, [st??????], [?t??????]
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) enPR: str?ng, IPA^(key): /st???/, [st??????], [?t??????]
• Rhymes: -??

Adjective

strong (comparative stronger, superlative strongest)

1. Capable of producing great physical force.

2. Capable of withstanding great physical force.

3. (of water, wind, etc.) Having a lot of power.

4. Determined; unyielding.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp, chapter 10:

     It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

5. Highly stimulating to the senses.

6. Having an offensive or intense odor or flavor.

8. Having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient.

10. (specifically) Having a high alcoholic content.

    She gets up, and pours herself a strong one. - Eagles, Lying Eyes

11. (grammar) Inflecting in a different manner than the one called weak, such as Germanic verbs which change vowels.

12. (chemistry) That completely ionizes into anions and cations in a solution.

13. (military) Not easily subdued or taken.

14. Having wealth or resources.

15. (slang, US) Impressive, good.

16. Having a specified number of people or units.

17. (of a disease or symptom) Severe; very bad or intense.
    • 2005, Andrew Gaeddert, Healing Immune Disorders: Natural Defense-Building Solutions, North Atlantic Books, page 221:

      Physicians may diagnosis influenza by a throat culture or blood test, which may be important if you have a particularly strong flu, if your doctor suspects pneumonia or a bacterial infection.

18. (mathematics, logic) Having a wide range of logical consequences; widely applicable. (Often contrasted with a weak statement which it implies.)
19. (of an argument) Convincing.

Synonyms

• (capable of producing great physical force): forceful, powerful, derf
• (capable of withstanding great physical force): durable, tough, sturdy
• (determined, unyielding): ardent, determined, swith, unyielding, zealous
• (highly stimulating to the senses): extreme, intense
• (having an offensive or intense odor or flavor): rank
• (having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient): concentrated, potent
• (having a high alcoholic content): hard
• (grammar: irregular): irregular
• (military: not easily subdued or taken): impregnable, inviolable, secure, unassailable, unattackable

Antonyms

• (capable of producing great physical force): forceless, weak
• (capable of withstanding great physical force): fragile
• (having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient): diluted, impotent, weak
• (grammar: irregular): regular, weak
• (chemistry: that completely ionizes): weak
• (military: not easily subdued or taken): weak

Hyponyms

• ultra-strong

Translations

See also

• strength

Adverb

strong (not comparable)

1. In a strong manner.

Synonyms

• (in a strong manner): forcefully, powerfully, vigorously, strongly

Antonyms

• (in a strong manner): forcelessly, powerlessly, weakly

Translations

See also

• strong as an ox
• strong personality
• strong verb

Anagrams

• trongs

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English strang, form Proto-Germanic *strangaz.

Alternative forms

• stronge, stronke, stron, strange, straunge

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /str?n?/

Adjective

strong (plural and weak singular stronge, comparative strongere, superlative strongest)

1. strong

Antonyms

• feble
• weyk

Descendants

• English: strong
• Scots: strang
• Yola: straung

References

• “strong, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Old French estrange

Adjective

strong

1. Alternative form of straunge

Swedish

Etymology

Through Swedish slang, based on English strong, since 1922. There is also a form strång with a different sense since 1640.

Adjective

strong (comparative strongare, superlative strongast)

1. mentally and morally strong, courageous

Declension

Related terms

• strongt

References

• strong in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• strong in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Tok Pisin

Etymology

English strong

Adjective

strong

1. Capable of producing great physical force; strong.
2. Capable of withstanding great physical force; strong.
3. Determined, unyielding.

See also

• strongim
• strongpela

Noun

strong

1. Strength

English

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin ponder?sus (“weighty”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?n.d??.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?n.d?.?s/

Adjective

ponderous (comparative more ponderous, superlative most ponderous)

1. Heavy, massive, weighty.
   • 1879, Julian Hawthorne, Archibald Malmaison, ch. 5:

     [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.

   • c. 1920, Edgar B. P. Darlington, The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings, ch. 4:

     The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.
   • 1781, Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets, "Dryden":

     It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.

   • 1845, Charles Dickens, Pictures From Italy, ch. 11:

     In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, ch. 19:

     For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.

3. Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.
   • 1915, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Little Miss Grouch, ch. 10:

     Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.

   • 1919, Virginia Woolf, "Kew Gardens":

     Following his steps . . . came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble.

4. Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
   • 1863, Elizabeth Gaskell, "Cousin Phillis":

     Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.

   • 1918, Gene Stratton-Porter, A Daughter Of The Land, ch. 2:

     [A]s certainly as any one said anything in her presence that she had occasion to repeat, she changed the wording to six-syllabled mouthfuls, delivered with ponderous circumlocution.

5. (rare) Characterized by or associated with pondering.
   • c. 1660, Thomas Manton, "Sermon Upon John III" in Works of Thomas Manton (2002 edition), ?ISBN, p. 464:

     Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.

   • 1804, The Literary Magazine and American Register, vol. 2, no. 7, p. 10:

     The acute and ponderous mind of Dr. Johnson was not always right in its decisions.

   • 1850, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, vol. 41, p. 242:

     They are the pleasantest of all companions, and perhaps the most affluent in correct opinions of men and things generally, although little addicted to ponderous consideration or deep research.

6. (obsolete) Dense.

Synonyms

• (heavy, massive): heavy, massive
• (serious, onerous): oppressive, serious

Derived terms

• ponderously
• ponderousness

Translations

Anagrams

• neuropods