powerhouse
Americannoun
plural
powerhouses-
Electricity. a generating station.
-
a person, group, team, or the like, having great energy, strength, or potential for success.
noun
-
an electrical generating station or plant
-
informal a forceful or powerful person or thing
Usage
What does powerhouse mean? A powerhouse is a powerful, forceful, or dominant person, group, or thing.In a literal sense, a powerhouse is a station or plant that generates electricity. Although it can still be used this way, terms like power plant and power station are much more common. Powerhouse is far more commonly used in the figurative way, especially in context of sports and business.Example: Because they always win, they can always recruit the best players, which makes them a perennial powerhouse in the conference.
Etymology
Origin of powerhouse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dubai’s and Doha’s airports were catapulted into major air-travel hubs starting in the 2000s as their own countries became global economic powerhouses.
From MarketWatch
Substantial layoffs seem certain, but cost cutting alone won’t make the operation into the sort of entertainment powerhouse that can better compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney.
Some blame the section commissioners for supposedly having a bias in favor of the powerhouses to make money off them.
From Los Angeles Times
They could be ambitious Champ sides such as Coventry, dormant former powerhouses like Wasps - who plan to relaunch in Kent in the coming seasons - or brand-new entities.
From BBC
When resource constraints led Singapore to halt new data centre developments between 2019 and 2022, tech companies began to build across the border in Malaysia, which has fast become a powerhouse for the sector.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
