See powers that be in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for powers that be meaning in English (6.4kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "grc",
"3": "αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι",
"4": "",
"5": "the existing authorities"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι (hai oûsai exousíai, “the existing authorities”)",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "subjunctive"
},
"expansion": "subjunctive",
"name": "glossary"
}
],
"etymology_text": "After Romans 13:1 in the Tyndale Bible and the King James Version.\nThe phrase is a translation of the Ancient Greek αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι (hai oûsai exousíai, “the existing authorities”). “Be” is the archaic third-person plural present indicative form, equivalent to the modern “are”, not a subjunctive.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "the powers that be",
"tags": [
"canonical",
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "p",
"def": "1"
},
"expansion": "the powers that be pl (plural only)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
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"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w"
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},
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"name": "English pluralia tantum",
"parents": [
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"Nouns",
"Lemmas"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
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"name": "English quotations with omitted translation",
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"Entry maintenance"
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"parents": [
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"Entry maintenance"
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
"parents": [
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"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
"parents": [
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"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Collectives",
"orig": "en:Collectives",
"parents": [
"Miscellaneous",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "TPTB"
},
{
"word": "PTB"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1929, Alexander Berkman, chapter 10, in Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism, New York: Vanguard Press, →OCLC",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1975, “Fight the Power (Part 1 & 2)”, in The Heat Is On, performed by The Isley Brothers",
"text": "Time is truly wastin', there's no guarantee / Smile is in the makin', we've got to fight the powers that be",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021, “Skyline”, in Parallel World, performed by Cadence Weapon",
"text": "The powers that be, they trick us / Loopholes to evict us",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic."
],
"id": "en-powers_that_be-en-noun-e274c~Mi",
"links": [
[
"authorities",
"authorities"
],
[
"faceless",
"faceless"
],
[
"bureaucratic",
"bureaucratic"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) The holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "establishment"
},
{
"word": "the man"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "powers-that-be"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"plural",
"plural-only"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "當權者"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dāngquán zhě",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "当权者"
},
{
"code": "kw",
"lang": "Cornish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "an awtoritas"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "gevestigde orde"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "hoge heren"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "hogerhand"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "esivalta"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "autorités constituées"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "die zuständigen Stellen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "die da oben"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "armódioi",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "αρμόδιοι"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "poteri forti"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "grupa trzymająca władzę"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "vlastʹ imuščije",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "власть имущие"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "silʹnyje mira sevo",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "сильные мира сего"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "vlasti prederžaščije",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "власти предержащие"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "makthavare"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "överhet"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"King James Version",
"Tyndale Bible"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-powers that be.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cf/En-au-powers_that_be.ogg/En-au-powers_that_be.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/En-au-powers_that_be.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "powers that be"
}
{
"derived": [
{
"word": "TPTB"
},
{
"word": "PTB"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "grc",
"3": "αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι",
"4": "",
"5": "the existing authorities"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι (hai oûsai exousíai, “the existing authorities”)",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "subjunctive"
},
"expansion": "subjunctive",
"name": "glossary"
}
],
"etymology_text": "After Romans 13:1 in the Tyndale Bible and the King James Version.\nThe phrase is a translation of the Ancient Greek αἱ οὖσαι ἐξουσίαι (hai oûsai exousíai, “the existing authorities”). “Be” is the archaic third-person plural present indicative form, equivalent to the modern “are”, not a subjunctive.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "the powers that be",
"tags": [
"canonical",
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "p",
"def": "1"
},
"expansion": "the powers that be pl (plural only)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "establishment"
},
{
"word": "the man"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English pluralia tantum",
"English quotations with omitted translation",
"English terms derived from Ancient Greek",
"English terms derived from the Bible",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English terms with quotations",
"Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
"Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
"Undetermined terms with quotations",
"en:Collectives",
"en:People"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1929, Alexander Berkman, chapter 10, in Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism, New York: Vanguard Press, →OCLC",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1975, “Fight the Power (Part 1 & 2)”, in The Heat Is On, performed by The Isley Brothers",
"text": "Time is truly wastin', there's no guarantee / Smile is in the makin', we've got to fight the powers that be",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021, “Skyline”, in Parallel World, performed by Cadence Weapon",
"text": "The powers that be, they trick us / Loopholes to evict us",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic."
],
"links": [
[
"authorities",
"authorities"
],
[
"faceless",
"faceless"
],
[
"bureaucratic",
"bureaucratic"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) The holders of power or the authorities in a given situation, especially if seen as being faceless or unreasonably bureaucratic."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"plural",
"plural-only"
],
"wikipedia": [
"King James Version",
"Tyndale Bible"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-powers that be.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cf/En-au-powers_that_be.ogg/En-au-powers_that_be.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/En-au-powers_that_be.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "powers-that-be"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "當權者"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dāngquán zhě",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "当权者"
},
{
"code": "kw",
"lang": "Cornish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "an awtoritas"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "gevestigde orde"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "hoge heren"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "hogerhand"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "esivalta"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "autorités constituées"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "die zuständigen Stellen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "die da oben"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "armódioi",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "αρμόδιοι"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "poteri forti"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "grupa trzymająca władzę"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "vlastʹ imuščije",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "власть имущие"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "silʹnyje mira sevo",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "сильные мира сего"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "vlasti prederžaščije",
"sense": "holders of power",
"word": "власти предержащие"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "makthavare"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "holders of power",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "överhet"
}
],
"word": "powers that be"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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