enable
Americanverb (used with object)
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enables,
present (3rd person singular)
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enabled,
past participle, past
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enabling
present participle
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to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to: Students with vision impairments are enabled in the classroom with magnifiers and screen reader software.
This document will enable him to pass through the enemy lines unmolested.
Students with vision impairments are enabled in the classroom with magnifiers and screen reader software.
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to make possible or easy.
Aeronautics enables us to overcome great distances.
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to encourage or support (the bad or dysfunctional behavior) of (someone): You enable drug users when you shield them from the consequences of their actions.
The university enabled years of abuse by ignoring complaints against the coach.
You enable drug users when you shield them from the consequences of their actions.
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Digital Technology.
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to make (a device, system, or feature) active or functional; turn on.
The automatic snapshot feature is enabled by default.
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to equip for an extended, peripheral, or premium use.
to enable your laptop for wireless internet access.
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verb
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to provide (someone) with adequate power, means, opportunity, or authority (to do something)
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to make possible
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to put (a digital electronic circuit element) into an operative condition by supplying a suitable input pulse
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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enablesimple
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enablessimple
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have enabledperfect
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has enabledperfect
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am enablingprogressive
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are enablingprogressive
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is enablingprogressive
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have been enablingperfect progressive
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has been enablingperfect progressive
Past
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enabledsimple
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had enabledperfect
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was enablingprogressive
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were enablingprogressive
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had been enablingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enable
First recorded in 1375–1425; Middle English; see en- 1, able
Explanation
When you make something possible, you enable it. Your good grades might enable you to get into your first-choice college. And a great teacher enabled you to get such good grades. Enable has taken on the meaning of allowing or even helping someone continue to do something they really shouldn't. If your mother writes note after note to get you out of school for no good reason, she is enabling your habit of playing hooky. While you might think she's being cool, a therapist might call her an enabler and give her part of the blame.
Vocabulary lists containing enable
Vocabulary from "Community is the 'killer app' missing from virtual reality" by Dmitri Williams
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Vocabulary from the Second Presidential Debate: October 9, 2016
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Unit 1: Ecological Systems
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The European Union called the sanctions "deeply regrettable" and said it was "ready to take any necessary measures to enable the court to carry out its work."
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
The spectrum that SpaceX just said it plans to acquire from Grain Management wouldn’t actually enable the company to build a nationwide network.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
President George W. Bush later that month vowed to pursue fixes like fortifying cockpit doors and “technology to enable controllers to take over distressed aircraft and land it by remote control.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
"This will enable us to study the properties and behavior of this exotic fluid in unprecedented detail."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
Put bluntly, the greed of North Korea’s cash-hungry cadre seemed to enable Shin’s trek.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
Diffusion helps molecules move around cells and enables many of the chemical interactions required for life.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
“We believe that SPCX’s unrivaled launch capabilities represent the foundational competitive advantage that enables all other parts of its business,” Godyn said in a note to clients, labeling the recent Starship mission a “major” milestone.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
Another worry was that the proposed laws could affect Australia's "reputation as a jurisdiction that enables innovation," the submission said.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
It provides funding that enables financing on everything from credit cards to buy-now pay-later loans to financing for Harley-Davidson motorcycles that are sold at dealerships.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Art enables us to communicate our understanding in ways that cannot be expressed otherwise.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
ZedPay likely enabled sanctioned entities to swap between traditional currencies and crypto, placing it within a “high-risk sanctions evasion network,” Binance’s investigators wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Chemists have long wondered how that process occurs, and the two Nobel laureates' discoveries have "enabled chemists to drive chemical reactions that lead to homochirality", the jury said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
It enabled him to purchase the Old Vicarage at Grantchester near Cambridge, formerly the home of war poet, Rupert Brooke, as well as a penthouse in London.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Inside those stars, extreme heat and pressure enabled nuclear fusion and other reactions that created heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026
The arrival of founder domesticates enabled local people to become sedentary, and thereby increased the likelihood of local crops’ evolving from wild plants that were gathered, brought home and planted accidentally, and later planted intentionally.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Henderson picked up the ball and sailed a throw to first, enabling the tying run to score.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
“It is only clearer now, however, that none of the Big Three has any intention of enabling Starlink as a competitor by giving it such an agreement,” Moffett wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Zuckerberg has laid out a vision in which Muse couples with an ever-expanding line-up of Meta AI smart glasses, enabling users to summon hands-free what he calls "personal superintelligence".
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Now, company executives say, agents will become the driverless cars of Wall Street: enabling investors to trade stocks, options, bitcoin and prediction-market contracts even when they are not paying attention.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
We later discovered that plastic cooking oil caps worked much better as wheels, enabling the trucks to last much longer.
From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
