povi

Borrowed from French pouvoir, Italian potere and English power.^[1][2][3] First attested in 1887.^[4]

• IPA^(key): /ˈpovi/

• Audio 1:

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• Audio 2:

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• Rhymes: -ovi
• Syllabification: po‧vi

povi (present povas, past povis, future povos, conditional povus, volitive povu)

2. (intransitive) to be able to; can (to have the ability to do something)

   Mi povas piediri. ― I can walk.

   Synonym: kapabli

   • 1910, L. L. Zamenhof, speech at the sixth World Congress of Esperanto in Washington, D.C.:

     Nur tre malmultaj el ni povis veni en vian landon, ĉar ni, esperantistoj, ne estas homoj riĉaj.

     Only very few of us could come to your country, because we, Esperantists, are not rich people.

   • 2012, Plato, translated by Donald Broadribb, La Respubliko (Traduko al Esperanto) [The Republic (Translation into Esperanto)], 2nd corrected edition (paperback), New York: Mondial, →ISBN, page 17:

     "Nu, ĉu vi ne vidas kiom ni estas?" li demandis. "Kiel mi ne povus vidi?"

     "Well, don't you see how many of us there are?" he asked. "How could I not see?"

     (literally, “"Well, do you not see how many we are?" he asked. "How could I not see?"”)

   • 2025 September 29, Jorge Nogueras, “La plej mallonga tago”, in uea.facila‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 December 2025:

     Mikronovelo estas eĉ pli mallonga: ekzemple ĝi povus konsisti el nur 500 vortoj; aŭ 300; aŭ precize 100 vortoj, kiel la ekzemplo sube;

     A micro-novella is even shorter: for example it could consist of only 500 words; or 300; or precisely 100 words, like the example below;

From Proto-Finnic *povi, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *poŋe.^[1] Cognates include Estonian põu, Erzya понго (pongo) and Moksha пов (pov).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpoʋi/, [ˈpo̞ʋi]
• Rhymes: -oʋi
• Syllabification^(key): po‧vi
• Hyphenation^(key): po‧vi

povi

1. bosom, breast

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:tissi

2. (fishing) bosom of a seine

• “povi”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

• pivo

povi

1. plural of povo

From Latin bovis, genitive singular of bōs.

povi

1. cattle
2. beef

• → Tokelauan: povi

Borrowed from Samoan povi.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpo.vi/
• Hyphenation: po‧vi

povi

1. cattle
2. cow
3. beef

• R. Simona, editor (1986), Tokelau Dictionary‎^[3], Auckland: Office of Tokelau Affairs, page 276

From Proto-Finnic *povi.

povi

1. breast, bosom

• Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “пазуха”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎^[4], Petrozavodsk: Periodika