Three consonants carry one idea: prevailing, growing stronger than what stands against you. The same letters give you the act of overpowering, the man who is strong, the hero, and the abstract quality of courage. Notice the thread: this is not raw force but the upper hand, strength measured against resistance. Every word here is verified against pealim, niqqud included.
The same root runs through the verb system. Each binyan is a voice: it bends the one idea into active, passive, causative or reciprocal. Tap to hear.
Only the simple pa'al (to prevail) and the causative hif'il (to amplify) are lexicalized here. The pa'al is the inner state of getting stronger; the hif'il pushes that strength onto something else, which is why it means "to turn the volume up". The other binyanim are not used for this root.
Same root letters, different noun moulds (mishkalim). The mould tells you the function: who does it, the act of doing it, or the thing produced.
Strip the prefixes, suffixes and vowels. Three consonants remain, and the meaning lives there.