mighty
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.having great power, strength, or importance.
adj.possessing great physical strength, political power, or social influence.
Simple“The mighty river carved a deep canyon through the rock over millions of years.”
In context“The empire fell not to a mighty army, but to a series of internal economic failures and administrative corruption.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.very big or impressive in size.
adj.notable for its great size, volume, or physical scale.
Simple“He took a mighty swing at the ball and hit it over the fence.”
In context“With one mighty heave, the workers managed to shift the fallen timber away from the blocked entrance.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
adv.you use this to mean 'very' when you want to sound casual or old-fashioned.
adv.functions as an intensifier meaning 'to a high degree'; typically restricted to colloquial or regional speech patterns.
Simple“That was a mighty fine meal you cooked for us tonight.”
In context“The locals were mighty suspicious of any outsiders who arrived in town without a clear explanation for their visit.”
UsageAlways placed immediately before the adjective it modifies.
Teacher's tipThis adverbial use is common in American Southern dialects and older literature; it may sound out of place in modern professional writing.
“The drug lenacapavir is a mighty weapon against HIV.”
“Another mighty, all-purpose midfielder, Johnny Giles, went one better than Souness.”
From Middle English mighty, mightie, mighti, myghty, miȝty, maȝty, from Old English mihtiġ, mehtiġ, meahtiġ, mæhtiġ (“mighty”), from Proto-West Germanic mahtīg (“mighty”), from Proto-Germanic mahtīgaz (“mighty”), equivalent to might + -y. Cognate with Scots michty, mychty, Saterland Frisian machtich, Dutch machtig, German Low German machtig, German mächtig, Swedish mäktig.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.