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:
This would free it from Congressional meddling, enable it to make long-term investments, and impose much-needed accountability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
After that point, Covid-19 certificates continued to be issued, primarily to enable members of the public to meet entry requirements when travelling abroad.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
They may enable detectives to resolve cases for families even after the passage of decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
We’re underestimating the often-invisible work of people who enable higher-ranking leaders to delegate and get the most out of front-line employees.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The arm motions required to prevent twisting were complicated enough, but would mastering them enable me to prevent twisting, rolling, and tumbling all at once?
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
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
The real reason the scheme works, however, is that people are overpaying him for Bitcoin, which enables him to buy more Bitcoin and sell more securities at favorable terms.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
Maintaining an openness to people — and a willingness to strengthen connections with everyone from distant or estranged family members to friends, acquaintances and strangers — enables you to benefit from more social interaction.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
He noted that Snap offers tools through its Family Center feature, which currently enables parents to track aspects of how their teens are using Snapchat.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
And it enabled the company to string together tens of millions of dollars in contracts.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
"This arrangement enabled us to pack in much more ytterbium. In our particles, the light energy coming in flows almost entirely in one direction, inward toward the erbium ions."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
He has likely dealt with and even enabled this dynamic since they were children, which is why he is either unwilling or unable to find a way to push back.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
After I first enabled the assistant, it took Siri several days to completely index my phone’s content.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
What exactly was it that enabled seventeenth- and eighteenth-century science to make progress in a way that previous systems of knowledge could not?
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
"This is an example of an adaptation that can make a real difference to autistic people, enabling them to access facilities and venues," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
“I was in that enabling cycle for years, and I’m not going to be a part of that again!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
"It's really enabling scientists to do things we would not even have thought of before," he said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchard, global head of equities for UBS Wealth Management, also recommends that investors interested in humanoids take a look at the companies enabling them.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 5, 2026
She watches him from the window, walking down the block, a small, balding, unemployed middle-aged man, who is enabling her to wreck her marriage.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
