strength
noun
- cardinal virtue
- measure of ability to exert force
- the quality or state of being strong or intense
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈstɹɛŋθ/ / [ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɛŋθ] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɛŋθ] / /ˈstɹɛnθ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).
- The quality or degree of being strong.
“It requires great strength to lift heavy objects.”
“Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.”
- The intensity of a force or power; potency.
“He had the strength of ten men.”
“Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.”
- The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
“[…] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […].”
- A positive attribute.
“to play to one's strengths”
“We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.”
- An armed force, a body of troops.
“Thou princely leader of our English strength, Never so needful on the earth of France,”
“That done, dissever your united strengths, And part your mingled colours once again;”
- A strong place; a stronghold.
“All like himself rebellious, by whose aid This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deitie supream, us dispossest, He trusted to have seis’d […]”
- The minimum ratio of the number of edges removed from a given graph to components created, over all possible removals.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).
- To strengthen (all senses).
“ſtrengthed with all myght / thꝛowe hys gloꝛious power / vnto all pacience / and longe ſufferynge with ioyfulnes”
“Then ſhalt thow perceave what it meaneth that the power of this wretched monſtre / muſt be ſtrengthed / by anothers power and not by his awne.”