051018 - WotD: puissant

puissant

From the nearly daily subscription email from Knowledge News, today's email discussing the Mayan history and classic culture:

"The Maya and their puissant priests believed that human and animal sacrifice, bloodletting, and ritual drama and sport nourished the gods and were essential to society's continued existence."

From the Merriam Webster online dictionary,

powerful, having puissance (strength, power)