Like Tom Marvolo Riddle (aka Voldemort), Merlin was a Slytherin, an ambitious, powerful wizard. He was a wizarding legend, and, of course, more powerful than the Dark Lord. According to the Harry Potter Wiki, Merlin was “arguably one of the most powerful wizards of all time”.
Grindelwald Is More Powerful and Cunning Than Voldemort
Grindelwald had more power in the Wizarding World up till the final moments of his life. He had more followers, and they were intensely loyal to him. He conquered more of the globe and could perform more advanced forms of magic.
Albus Dumbledore is the most obvious person who can defeat Voldemort, and the Dark Lord seemed to realize it. Rowling herself has explicitly stated in the books that Dumbledore is the only person Voldemort fears and recognizes as a genuine threat to his own power.
He is known for his cunning and ruthlessness. Formerly known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord Voldemort was the most formidable evil wizard in the entire universe. Until Harry Potter, Voldemort's magical prowess was practically unmatched, and no one could stand a chance against him.
Voldemort himself wasn't more powerful than Dumbledore, and his followers, including Bellatrix, definitely weren't. Don't get me wrong, she was dangerous, and committed horrible crimes, but she wasn't as strong as Albus. After all, she was ultimately defeated by Molly Weasley.
Strong: Albus Dumbledore
Most regarded him as the strongest wizard in history, and even Lord Voldemort himself feared to face him. Beyond his many impressive titles and positions of power, Dumbledore exhibited absolutely extraordinary abilities on several occasions.
Severus Snape might have pretended to serve Voldemort (while in fact, as we all know, working as a double agent for Dumbledore), but there's almost no question he was more powerful than the Dark Lord.
Voldemort apparently believes nothing is worse than death; perhaps his greatest weakness is his inability to love. This is because his mother, Merope Gaunt, gave Tom Riddle Senior (Voldemort's father) a love potion. Because Voldemort was conceived under a love potion, he isn't able to feel or express love in his life.
We would have to give the victory to Darth Vader. While the two dark lords seem perfectly matched on their villainy and power, Darth Vader's lightsaber and ability to immediately use the force to choke Voldemort, without chanting any spell would end this showdown in seconds.
Bellatrix was his right-hand woman and when she was finally taken down, he bellowed out in rage at her passing. While she was certainly a powerful witch who earned Voldemort's trust, it's highly unlikely she could have defeated him in combat.
Harry became so enamoured with the spell that he eventually used it to finish off Lord Voldemort. Here's how Harry's relationship with Expelliarmus became his signature – and why that's a good and bad thing.
But Voldemort's killing curse rebounds, reflected by Harry's blood protection and the Elder Wand's allegiance to him, while Harry's Disarming charm wrenches the Elder Wand from Voldemort's hand to his. With all his Horcruxes destroyed, Voldemort dies instantly.
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself.
Because Voldemort contains Harry's blood, as long as Voldemort is alive he preserves Lily Potter's charm, so Harry can't die at his hand.
No. Snape couldn't defeat Voldemort even if he was the master of elder wand. Even Dumbeldore couldn't defeat him in spite of possessing elder wand. One could argue that Dumbeldore guessed about horcruxes and therefore didn't duel with full fledged power.
Avada Kedavra
Topping the list for the most powerful spells in the Harry Potter universe is no other than Avada Kedavra, Voldemort's favorite to instill his will and fear onto others. The spell itself is a play on Abra Kadabra and is easy to cast by just about anyone in the Wizarding World.
In Star Wars Legends and Canon, Galen Marek (Starkiller) is the only Jedi (other than Obi-Wan Kenobi) to put a beat down on Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker.
Adam Warlock is a being of immense power. He has superhuman strength and agility, can manipulate energy beyond comprehension, and has a healing ability that would mean much of Vader's physical attacks would be unsuccessful. This fight would be over pretty quickly, and Warlock would be the victor, no question.
EU/Canon Palpatine wins easily. So much stronger/faster/versatile than Voldemort can ever hope to be.
Voldemort's greatest fear is death and as a result a boggart takes the form of his own corpse. It is unsurprising that this is Voldemort's biggest fear. After all, he did split his soul up encasing it in various horcruxes just so to keep himself from dying.
As mentioned in the book, Dumbledore was 'the only one he ever feared'. Deep down, Voldemort knew that Dumbledore was more powerful than him. He had superior magical capability and possessed important information about Voldemort.
Mason Riddle is the Son of Tom Marvalo Riddle, otherwise known as Lord Voldemort, and the only American student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is one of the only students who switched houses from Slytherin, to Gryffindor.
Winner: Snape
Bellatrix would be in the top pile of witches and wizards of all-time based on powers, but her reliance on the same moves and lack of wit means she would be defeated by Snape after giving him an initially tricky time.
He did not love anyone, and did not care to be loved. He felt nothing for his family, and only wanted his friends in school to rally around him because he wanted to hold power over them. Bellatrix Lestrange was obviously in love with him and worshiped him, but he only cared for her servitude, not her.
More importantly, Dumbledore, regardless of power, can't actually kill Voldemort because his soul is spread out among the horcruxes. Dumbledore is an inconvenience to Voldemort, not a genuine threat. But Voldemort is still scared of him.