Definition of superpower in English:




    ‘the threat to oil supplies brought the two superpowers closer together’
    [as modifier] ‘superpower rivalry’
    ‘a superpower summit’
    • ‘Not long before I was born, the country had won a big war, had become a superpower, and had aggressively begun to insert itself into the international landscape.’
    • ‘One of the good things about being a superpower is that countries the world over want to tie their economic fortunes to yours.’
    • ‘When Bobby Fischer met Boris Spassky at the 1972 World Chess Championship, the event was redolent with the superpower politics of the Cold War.’
    • ‘If you're looking to find the next economic superpower, you have to realize that most emerging markets stay emerging markets.’
    • ‘Instead of naming that government, let's just call it government X. Government X has decided that it should be the world's only superpower and that it should stand in judgment over all countries in the world.’
    • ‘But what is also clear from this action is how Bosnia and Herzegovina from a powerful state that once was a part of sovereign Yugoslavia, has slid down so steeply to become a fragile, vulnerable state at the mercy of the world's superpower.’
    • ‘Another commercial row between two of the world's economic superpowers involves a facet of America's tax code.’
    • ‘Efforts to greatly expand education could determine whether India is a future economic superpower or if it will be burdened with the world's biggest population of poor illiterates.’
    • ‘It is the kind of behavior that historically has caused nations to unite against previous superpowers, from the Roman Empire to Britain.’
    • ‘It does not become an economic superpower but it does become a ‘newly industrialized country’, like Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.’
    • ‘In India, though, citizens believe the millennium marks a new era in which their country will emerge as a world superpower.’
    • ‘As the Cold War developed, the two superpowers jockeyed for position.’
    • ‘The first occasion was the collapse of the Soviet superpower enemy and of Communism as an ideology.’
    • ‘The audience was unsure of what would happen to him just as Americans are unsure of what will happen to them entering the second millennium as the world's only financially and culturally dominant superpower.’
    • ‘Third, Beijing is likely to emerge as an exporting superpower, aggravating America's trade deficit and fanning protectionist pressures in a slumping world economy.’
    • ‘The Cold War is over: the strategic forces of the superpowers are standing down while their nuclear arsenals are shrinking dramatically.’
    • ‘The United States is unquestionably the world's only military superpower, but this is not the case in economic terms.’
    • ‘It is very difficult to be capitalist when there is a communist superpower invading most of Eastern Europe and trying to do the same in Africa and South America.’
    • ‘The end of the Cold War and the emergence of the United States as the only superpower raised several questions concerning the direction of the country's foreign policy.’
    • ‘Thus, China's development as a superpower is beginning to concern its neighbours and the USA.’
  • 2(in fiction) an exceptional or extraordinary power or ability:

    ‘he uses his superpowers to combat evil’
    • ‘He has his superpowers back by the end of the show when he shoots arrows through several ropes holding hanging men, then throws his sword about fifty meters to hit first one then another guard who are menacing Much.’
    • ‘The comic book is about a city where every citizen and many of the cats wear costumes and have superpowers.’
    • ‘Because Spider Man is so human, we see his superpowers are really just an extension of his bravery in the face of adversity.’
    • ‘She has superpowers with which to vanquish a personal archnemesis.’
    • ‘His superpowers include teleportation.’
    • ‘Characters who have super-powers need anchoring in reality to make them believable.’
    • ‘Every superhero has a story to explain how his or her superpowers came to be.’
    • ‘The girl gets a magic item that gives her superpowers.’
    • ‘He had no superpowers to fend them off.’
    • ‘He-Man just uses his superpowers to throw the city back to its place.’
    • ‘He uses his super-powers to defeat a whole school of martial arts experts.’