From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishworld powerˌworld ˈpower noun [countable] COUNTRY/NATIONa country that has a lot of power and influence in many parts of the world → superpower
Examples from the Corpus
world power• In literature, if in little else, Britain was again a world power.• The first stemmed from Britain's own decline as a world power.• Britain became a world power because it handled four institutions supremely well.• The United States had replaced Great Britain as the dominant world power.• Nor was the United States the dominant world power it had been in 1945. 