Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use impotent in a sentence

10 example sentences · adjective, noun

Impotent means lacking physical strength or vigor; weak. Example: “A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.”

Examples of impotent by meaning

adjectiveLacking in power, as to act effectively; helpless.

  • Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent1984, Freeman J. Dyson, Weapons and Hope

adjectiveIncapable of sexual intercourse, often because of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection, having impotentia...

  • A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158

More sentences with impotent

  • This, of course, was taboo: any man hit by a woman's undercloth was supposed to become impotent.2000, Nico Kofi Adiku, Azasu: Son of the Hunter, page 46. From the entry undercloth
  • They are entirely impotent with respect to causal effects on the physical world.1986, Paul M. Churchland, Matter and Consciousness, Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 11. From the entry epiphenomenalist
  • We impotents are great collectors of objets de vertu, snuffboxes, musical boxes, knick-knacks.1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 260. From the entry objet de vertu
  • By way of contrast to the technologically hip — and to date, politically impotent — netizenry, Chapman cites the Christian Coalition.1997, Edwin Diamond, Robert A. Silverman, White House to Your House: Media and Politics in Virtual America, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 165. From the entry netizenry
  • Cora kept edging off, her frown dark with impotent rebellion.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 200. From the entry squaller
  • The omnicompetent state admittedly works badly at times, but it does work, which is more than the impotent "commune" would be likely to do.1922, Niles Carpenter, Guild Socialism: An Historical and Critical Analysis, New York; London: D. Appleton and Co., →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL…. From the entry omnicompetent
  • He tosses two twenties on the table and with a gentle nudge turns me away from Steve, who sits there, impotent, staring gape-mouthed at the cash.2015, Julia Kent, Shopping for a Billionaire. From the entry gape-mouthed
  • Likewise the theology of God crucified, the weakness of the cross, the divine bias to the poor and impotent, makes no idol or ideology of powerlessness.1990, Alan E[dmond] Lewis, “Unmasking Idolatries: Vocation in the Ecclesia Crucis”, in Christian D. Kettler, Todd H. Speidell, editors…. From the entry resurrectingly

Meaning of impotent

  1. adjective Lacking physical strength or vigor; weak.
  2. adjective Lacking in power, as to act effectively; helpless.
  3. adjective Incapable of sexual intercourse, often because of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection, having impotentia coeundi.

Full definition of impotent

Questions about impotent in a sentence

How do you use impotent in a sentence?
Impotent is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.”
What is a short sentence with impotent?
“Cora kept edging off, her frown dark with impotent rebellion.”
What does impotent mean?
Impotent means lacking physical strength or vigor; weak.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: impotent (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use impotent in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/impotent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.