power vs sway

power

noun
  • The ability to affect or influence. 

  • Physical force or strength. 

  • Control or coercion, particularly legal or political (jurisdiction). 

  • The people in charge of legal or political power, the government. 

  • A measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy. 

  • The ability to do or undergo something. 

  • An influential nation, company, or other such body. 

  • Any of the elementary forms or parts of machines: three primary (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley) and three secondary (the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw). 

  • In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme. 

  • A measure of the effectiveness that a force producing a physical effect has over time. If linear, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the displacement of or in an object) ÷ time. If rotational, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the angle of displacement) ÷ time. 

  • The strength by which a lens or mirror magnifies an optical image. 

  • The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true. 

  • A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): xⁿ, read as "x to the power of n" or the like, is called a power and denotes the product x⨯x⨯⋯⨯x, where x appears n times in the product; x is called the base and n the exponent. 

  • Cardinality. 

  • The ability to coerce, influence, or control. 

  • Electricity or a supply of electricity. 

adj
  • Impressive. 

verb
  • To provide power for (a mechanical or electronic device). 

  • To hit or kick something forcefully. 

  • To enable or provide the impetus for. 

sway

noun
  • Influence, weight, or authority that inclines to one side 

  • The act of swaying; a swaying motion; a swing or sweep of a weapon. 

  • Preponderance; turn or cast of balance. 

  • Rule; dominion; control; power. 

  • A switch or rod used by thatchers to bind their work. 

  • The maximum amplitude of a vehicle's lateral motion. 

  • A rocking or swinging motion. 

verb
  • To influence or direct by power, authority, persuasion, or by moral force; to rule; to govern; to guide. Compare persuade. 

  • To move or wield with the hand; to swing; to wield. 

  • To bear sway; to rule; to govern. 

  • To hoist (a mast or yard) into position. 

  • To be drawn to one side by weight or influence; to lean; to incline. 

  • To have weight or influence. 

  • To cause to incline or swing to one side, or backward and forward; to bias; to turn; to bend; warp. 

  • To move or swing from side to side; or backward and forward; to rock. 

How often have the words power and sway occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )