enable
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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.
-
to make possible or easy.
Aeronautics enables us to overcome great distances.
-
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.
-
Digital Technology.
-
to make (a device, system, or feature) active or functional; turn on.
The automatic snapshot feature is enabled by default.
-
to equip for an extended, peripheral, or premium use.
to enable your laptop for wireless internet access.
-
verb
-
to provide (someone) with adequate power, means, opportunity, or authority (to do something)
-
to make possible
-
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
-
enablesimple
-
enablessimple
-
have enabledperfect
-
has enabledperfect
-
am enablingprogressive
-
are enablingprogressive
-
is enablingprogressive
-
have been enablingperfect progressive
-
has been enablingperfect progressive
Past
-
enabledsimple
-
had enabledperfect
-
was enablingprogressive
-
were enablingprogressive
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Vocabulary from the Second Presidential Debate: October 9, 2016
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
“Customers are choosing SAP to enable accurate and compliant AI outcomes grounded in their most critical business processes and data,” CEO Christian Klein said in a statement.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
A Home Office spokesperson said, while immigration enforcement visits are intelligence led, they make "no apology" for joining local authorities to enable information sharing and " fighting criminals who fuel immigration crime".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The 10-year federal framework will enable much larger cutbacks if deemed necessary in future years — as much as 40% of the combined allotments of California, Arizona and Nevada.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The goal is to build up the right level of confidence by 2030 to enable the launch of a program, which ideally means having flown by then.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
On his forty-first move Spassky decided to adjourn the game: This would enable him to take advantage of overnight analysis.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
The fibers are engineered to a length that enables them to resonate, producing a return that confuses enemy radar or tricks radar-guided missiles into locking onto the wrong target.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Tokenization allows investors to own fractions of an asset, rather than the whole thing, and blockchain hosting — theoretically, at least — enables payment, settlement, change of ownership and custody on a digital ledger.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
“So that information is in the marketplace, and that’s what actually enables price discovery, so stock prices roughly reflect what’s going on at a company, most of the time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
This mechanism is what enables combinatorial biosynthesis and allows bacteria to naturally generate multiple drug variants.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
It tells you what to measure and enables you to predict, but it provides no answer to the question ‘Why?’
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
“It enabled us to expand the scope in ways that wouldn’t have been feasible before,” Sarandos said.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
While that stems from “robust customer demand,” it was enabled by strategic decisions the company made “well before this demand materialized,” he added.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
The expansion enabled A Step to Freedom, run by chief executive Kenya Croom, to help far more people, but it also had another, less visible beneficiary: Croom herself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The Commission said time-management tools on Facebook and Instagram, including those enabled by default for teenagers, can be dismissed and do not meaningfully reduce usage.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Instead, highly productive agriculture enabled a modest number of immigrant rice farmers to reproduce much faster than Jomon hunter-gatherers and eventually to outnumber them.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
While evolution lacks “intention,” the author observes, natural selection is “relentlessly, exquisitely” effective at enabling life to adapt to a range of environmental conditions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
SpaceX is dedicated to advancing space technology with the goal of enabling human life on other planets.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
She recommended that he take a long way to reenter the park, enabling him to see the valley at a time he’d miss the crowds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Among them, the UN refugee agency detailed a new Legal Virtual AI Assistant for lawyers and legal officers representing refugees, enabling them to swiftly determine the rights available within country-specific legal frameworks.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
It was as though I had put on a pair of spectacles whose power was that of an x-ray enabling me to see deeper into the lives of men.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
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.
