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powerhouse

nounB2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,331 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: powerhouses

A powerhouse is a person or group with great energy and success. An economic powerhouse, a powerhouse of a performance, a real powerhouse.

The literal building is a generating station, and the figurative use borrows exactly that: a powerhouse produces rather than merely holds power. It is used of economies, teams and individuals alike, and it is always praise.

Definitions of powerhouse

  1. 1nounpowerhouseA person or group with great energy and success.B2

    “The small country has become an economic powerhouse in the last twenty years.”

powerhouse is a force.

Where it comes from

Power plus house, first the building housing a generator.

From power + house.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

powerhouse in the wild

  • Built in 1908, the powerhouse made possible the subway system between New Jersey and New York for the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad.

    Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse

  • The powerhouse was closed in 1929 and used as a storage place for railroad equipment.

    Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse

  • At its peak, the powerhouse could generate more than 100,000 horsepower.

    IRT Powerhouse

  • The New York City Board of Transportation took over operation of the powerhouse when it acquired the IRT in 1940.

    IRT Powerhouse

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.