potency

plural potencies

1. countableuncountablePower, authority.

   Beset on either hand by potencies greater than himself, he becomes the battle-ground of immortals.

   1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. The Orestea: III. Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 206

   2 more examples

   I would to heauen I had your potencie, And you were Isabell: should it then be thus? No: I would tell what 'twere to be a Iudge, and what a prisoner.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 67, column 2

   The doctor is the modern master of the mythological realm, the knower of all the secret ways and words of potency.

   1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 9

2. countableuncountableThe ability or capacity to perform something
   1. countableuncountableusuallySexual virility: the ability to become erect or achieve orgasm.

      Pliny the Elder states that, to increase sexual potency, the right testis of an ass should be worn in a bracelet.

      1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 49

      Antonyms: impotence

3. countableuncountableConcentration; strength
4. countableuncountablePotentiality, ability, capacity.
5. countabledateduncountablemathematicsCardinality.