Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To supply with the means, knowledge, or opportunity; make able: a hole in the fence that enabled us to watch; techniques that enable surgeons to open and repair the heart.
- v. To make feasible or possible: funds that will enable construction of new schools.
- v. To give legal power, capacity, or sanction to: a law enabling the new federal agency.
- v. To make operational; activate: enabled the computer's modem; enable a nuclear warhead.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make able; furnish with adequate power, ability, means, or authority; render competent.
- To put in an efficient state or condition; endow; equip; fit out.
- Synonyms To empower, qualify, capacitate.
- To give ability or competency.
Wiktionary
- v. To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
- v. To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.
- v. To allow a way out or excuse for an action.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
- v. To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.
WordNet 3.0
- v. render capable or able for some task
Etymologies
- en- + able (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I understand your need for emphasis to sell, but using the word enable makes it seem like Joe hand-picked the boys for Sandusky.”
The Huffington Post: Onward State: National Media Misses The Mark on Penn State Scandal
“She says: The word enable can be contrasted with the word empower.”
“It was prohibited to charge for parking here until laws could be written and adopted to again enable charging for parking legally.”
“It is notorious that our middle-class liberals have long looked forward to this consummation, when the working-class shall join forces with them, aid them heartily to carry forward their great works, go in a body to their tea - meetings, and, in short, enable them to bring about their millennium.”
“The terms enable Mercator Gold at its discretion to drawdown up to GBP4m in tranches, pursuant to the terms of the SEDA, in exchange for the purchase of newly issued shares.”
“It seems to be his preferred method of reaching the public these days, as the calls enable Cuomo to avoid rapid-fire questions from reporters eager to pin him down on his political plans.”
“But among the many things we learn from the worrisome/exhilarating "Countdown to Zero" is that, up until 1977, those so-called enable codes were all set to a single number zero.”
“Loose lending terms enable many firms to avoid debt default.”
The Wall Street Journal: Banks still waiting for restructuring boom
“For it too would enable a rapid departure from Iraq, would enable, that is, a rapid change in accordance with the electoral dictate of November 7th.”
“Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group - as well as hundreds of top independent labels enable Gracenote to incorporate new music information and enriched content into its media database before many songs are released.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘enable’.
-
grade 3
ability, absorb, act, tive, actual, adopt, advantage, ambition, ancient, arrange, arctic, attitude and 125 more...
-
EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
-
EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
-
Ayumi G3
Ability, absorb, accuse, act, active, actual, adopt, advantage, advice, ambition, ancient, approach and 128 more...
-
webdev
random webdev lingo used primarily in computer programming.
( open list, randomness, technical jargon, geek speak )
more:
ajax, user, admin, frontend, backend, database, sql, protocol, call, dom, layout, ui and 439 more... -
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
-
EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
+
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
-
capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
-
ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
-
What a concept
surrender, submit, yield, self-sacrifice, relent, capitulate, compromise, accommodate, commiserate, forgive, placate, give and 94 more...
-
Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
oneasterism's words
Words that I like, that I don't use often enough, that are new to me, that friends and family have taught me, and so on.
lugubrious, reticent, eschelon, missive, penchant, copious, conspicuous, tranquil, redolent, asinine, inane, dilatory and 625 more...
-
Simple Business Words
Simple useful basic business words
observation, suggestion, condition, situation, action, attention, caution, innovation, position, adoption, inflated, consideration and 84 more...
-
I am
considering, ruined, troubled, worried, frustrated, negative, depressing, depressed, depression, sick, exhausted, alone and 59 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for enable.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.