strong

• strang (dialectal)
• stronk (intentional misspelling)

From Middle English strong, strang, from Old English strang, from Proto-West Germanic *strang, from Proto-Germanic *strangaz (“tight, strict, straight, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“taut, stiff, tight”). Cognate with Scots strang (“strong”), Saterland Frisian strang, West Frisian string (“austere, strict, harsh, severe, stern, stark, tough”), Dutch streng (“strict, severe, tight”), German streng (“strict, severe, austere”), Swedish sträng, strang (“severe, strict, harsh”), Norwegian strang (“strong, harsh, bitter”), Norwegian streng (“strong, hard”), Icelandic strangur (“strict”), Latin stringō (“tighten”).

• (UK) enPR: strŏng, IPA^(key): /stɹɒŋ/, [st̠͡ɹ̠ɒŋ], [ʃt̠͡ɹ̠ɒŋ]

• Audio (UK)

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• (US) enPR: strông, IPA^(key): /stɹɔŋ/, [st̠͡ɹ̠ɔŋ], [ʃt̠͡ɹ̠ɔŋ], [ʃt͡ʃɹɔŋ]
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) enPR: strŏng, IPA^(key): /stɹɑŋ/, [st̠͡ɹ̠ɑŋ], [ʃt̠͡ɹ̠ɑŋ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒŋ

strong (comparative stronger, superlative strongest)

1. Capable of producing great physical force.

   a big strong man; Jake was tall and strong

   The man was nearly drowned after a strong undercurrent swept him out to sea.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For he was swift as swallow in her flight,
     And strong as Lyon in his lordly might.

   • 1853 April, Warren Isham, “Notes from Hungary”, in Warren Isham, editor, The Michigan Farmer, volume XI, number 4:

     But what sight is that? It seems a town right in the river, each building standing upon its own foundation, with the deep, strong current of the river sweeping all around it? They are flouring mills operated by the natural current of the stream.

2. Capable of withstanding great physical force.

   a strong foundation; good strong shoes

   • 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche, “Sprüche und Pfeile [Maxims and Arrows]”, in Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert [Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer]:

     Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.

     What does not kill me, makes me stronger.

3. (broadly) Possessing power, might, or strength.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 24:5:

     A wise man is strong, yea a man of knowledge encreaseth strength.

   • 1954, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “The Passage of the Marshes”, in The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings; 2), HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2001, page 619:

     Perhaps we grows very strong, stronger than Wraiths. Lord Smeagol? Gollum the Great? The Gollum! Eat fish every day, three times a day, fresh from the sea.

4. Determined; unyielding.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

   • 1934 March, Hermann Göring, Germany Reborn, page 47:

     Ideas are eternal; they hang in the stars, and a man must be brave and strong enough to reach up to the stars and fetch down the fire from heaven and to carry the torch among men.

   • 2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America‎, archived from the original on 7 February 2019:

     It noted China was especially strong in the fast-growing area of “deep learning.”

     Audio (US)

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   He is strong in the face of adversity.

5. Highly stimulating to the senses.

   a strong light; a strong taste

6. Having an offensive or intense odor or flavor.

   a strong smell

7. Having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient.

   a strong cup of coffee; a strong medicine

8. (specifically) Having a high alcoholic content.

   a strong drink

   She gets up, and pours herself a strong one. - Eagles, Lying Eyes

9. (grammar) Inflecting in a different manner than the one called weak, such as Germanic verbs which change vowels.

   a strong verb

10. (chemistry) That completely ionizes into anions and cations in a solution.

    a strong acid;  a strong base

11. (military) Not easily subdued or taken.

    a strong position

12. Having wealth or resources.

    a strong economy

13. (slang, US) Impressive, good.

    You're working with troubled youth in your off time? That’s strong!

14. Having a specified number of people or units.

    The enemy's army force was five thousand strong.

    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:

      Our armie will be forty thouſand ſtrong,
      When Tamburlain and braue Theridamas
      Haue met vs by the riuer Araris:
      And all conioin’d to meete the witleſſe King,
      That now is marching neere to Parthia.

15. (of a disease or symptom) Severe; very bad or intense.
    • 2005, Andrew Gaeddert, Healing Immune Disorders: Natural Defense-Building Solutions, North Atlantic Books, page 221:

      Physicians may diagnosis influenza by a throat culture or blood test, which may be important if you have a particularly strong flu, if your doctor suspects pneumonia or a bacterial infection.

16. (mathematics, logic) Having a wide range of logical consequences; widely applicable. (Often contrasted with a weak statement which it implies.)
17. (of an argument) Convincing.
    • 1558, John Knox, The Appellation of Iohn Knoxe from the cruell and moſt iniuſt ſentence pronounced againſt him by the falſe biſhoppes and clergie of Scotland, page 11v:

      […] but grounding him ſelfe vpon ſtrong reaſons, to wit, that he had not offended the Iewes, neither yet the Law, but that he was innocēt, and therefore that no iudge oght to geue hym in the hādes of his ennemies […]

• (capable of producing great physical force): forceful, powerful, derf
• (capable of withstanding great physical force): durable, tough, sturdy
• (determined, unyielding): ardent, determined, swith, unyielding, zealous
• (highly stimulating to the senses): extreme, intense
• (having an offensive or intense odor or flavor): rank
• (having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient): concentrated, potent
• (having a high alcoholic content): hard
• (grammar: irregular): irregular
• (military: not easily subdued or taken): impregnable, inviolable, secure, unassailable, unattackable

• (antonym(s) of “capable of producing great physical force”): forceless, weak
• (antonym(s) of “capable of withstanding great physical force”): fragile
• (antonym(s) of “having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient”): diluted, impotent, weak
• (antonym(s) of “grammar: irregular”): regular, weak
• (antonym(s) of “chemistry: that completely ionizes”): weak
• (antonym(s) of “military: not easily subdued or taken”): weak

• ultra-strong

• strength

strong (not comparable)

1. In a strong manner.

• (in a strong manner): forcefully, powerfully, vigorously, strongly

• (antonym(s) of “in a strong manner”): forcelessly, powerlessly, weakly

• strong as an ox
• strong personality
• strong verb

• trongs

From Old English strang, form Proto-Germanic *strangaz.

• stronge, stronke, stron, strange, straunge

• IPA^(key): /strɔnɡ/

strong (plural and weak singular stronge, comparative strenger or stronger, superlative strengest or strongest)

1. strong

• feble
• weyk

• English: strong
• Scots: strang
• Yola: straung

• “strong, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old French estrange.

strong

1. Alternative form of straunge

Through Swedish slang, based on English strong, since 1922. There is also a form strång with a different sense since 1640.

strong (comparative strongare, superlative strongast)

1. (colloquial) mentally and morally strong, courageous
2. (colloquial) strong (of a performance or the like)

   Synonym: stark

• strongt

• strong in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• strong in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• strong in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From English strong.

strong

1. Capable of producing great physical force; strong.
2. Capable of withstanding great physical force; strong.
3. Determined, unyielding.

• strongim
• strongpela

strong

1. Strength
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 1:22:

     Na God i mekim gutpela tok bilong givim strong long ol. Em i tokim ol olsem, “Yupela ol kain kain samting bilong solwara, yupela i mas kamap planti na pulapim olgeta hap bilong solwara. Na yupela ol pisin, yupela i mas kamap planti long graun.”

     →New International Version translation