Word.ws English Dictionary

powers-that-be

powers-that-be is the alternative spelling of powers that be.

Meaning of powers that be

Noun

the powers that be pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) The holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic.
    • [I]t appeared as though the hospital at Barchester would fall into abeyance, unless the powers that be should take some steps towards putting it once more into working order.1857, Anthony Trollope, “Hiram’s Hospital According to Act of Parliament”, in Barchester Towers. […], volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, →OCLC, page 20
    Synonyms:
    PTB, TPTB

Questions about powers-that-be

What is powers-that-be the alternative spelling of?
Powers-that-be is the alternative spelling of powers that be.

Words near powers-that-be in the dictionary

  1. powers of termination
  2. powers off
  3. powers on
  4. powers that be
  5. powers up
  6. powers-that-be
  7. powerscale
  8. powerscaling
  9. powerset
  10. powersets
  11. powersharing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: powers-that-be (page history and authors); powers that be (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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