Word.ws English Dictionary

powers that be

powers that be noun: the holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic.

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
    • Whoever you elect, he will legislate in favor of ‘law and order,’ to protect things as they are. The main concern of the powers that be is that the people should continue to believe in and uphold the existing system.1929, Alexander Berkman, chapter 10, in Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism, New York: Vanguard Press, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    PTB, TPTB

Examples of powers that be in a sentence

  • Time is truly wastin', there's no guarantee / Smile is in the makin', we've got to fight the powers that be1975, “Fight the Power (Part 1 & 2)”, in The Heat Is On, performed by The Isley Brothers:
  • The powers that be, they trick us / Loopholes to evict us2021, “Skyline”, in Parallel World, performed by Cadence Weapon:

Synonyms of powers that be

Forms of powers that be

alternative formpowers-that-be

Origin of powers that be

After Romans 13:1 in the Tyndale Bible and the King James Version. The phrase is a translation of the Ancient Greek αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι (hai oûsai exousíai, “the existing authorities”). The verb be is the archaic third-person plural present indicative form, equivalent to the modern are, and not a subjunctive.

Questions about powers that be

What does powers that be mean?
Powers that be means the holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic.
How do you use powers that be in a sentence?
Time is truly wastin', there's no guarantee / Smile is in the makin', we've got to fight the powers that be
What part of speech is powers that be?
Powers that be is a noun.

Words near powers that be in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-powers that be.ogg.

Cite this entry: “powers that be.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/powers_that_be. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.