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English

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Etymology

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From superpower +‎ -less or super- +‎ powerless.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

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superpowerless (comparative more superpowerless, superlative most superpowerless)

  1. In fiction, lacking a superpower; lacking the special attributes of a superhero or supervillain.
    • 2008, Shane Berryhill, Chance Fortune and the Outlaws:
      The idea of a practically unarmed, unshielded, and superpowerless human boy defeating what was probably the mightiest warrior of the day without any external aid is absolutely absurd.
    • 2001, William Bernhardt, Silent Justice, page 43:
      The 1969 dispenser was of the short-lived superpowerless karate-chopping Wonder Woman written by the legendary Dennis O'Neil.
  2. Extremely powerless.
    • 2003, Henry Bayman, The Secret of Islam: Love and Law in the Religion of Ethics, page lvi:
      Though nihilism may not be invincible, superpowers are superpowerless against it.
    • 2002, Glenn Kenny, A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Writers and Artists on Twenty-Five Years of Star Wars, page 40:
      If Boba Fett serves as a lightning rod for anything more significant than admiration of his arresting costume and four gritty lines of dialogue, perhaps it is as the embodiment of our third-wave, superpowerless anxiety, which long predates the events of September 11, 2001.
    • 1984, George Thomas Kurian, The New Book of World Rankings, page xviii:
      Yet the balance of power (or terror) is so evenly matched that the superpowers are superpowerless to use their awesome might in any situation short of an actual enemy attack.