re-enter
Britishverb
Explanation
To re-enter is to come in again after going out, the way you might run back to your car, grab your shopping bags, and then re-enter the grocery store. To enter is to go in, from a root that means "between or among," and the prefix re- means "again." Whenever you exit a place, you can choose to re-enter it later (unless you're at a concert and there's a sign reading "no re-entry"). A space shuttle that returns to Earth's atmosphere re-enters it, and an injured basketball player might decide to re-enter the game again in the final quarter.
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.
I am also aware the economy isn’t great and I’m worried I won’t be able to easily re-enter the workforce if I take a year off.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
The space junk includes defunct man-made objects like rocket bodies, dead satellites and fragments from launches, explosions and collisions that threaten to re-enter Earth's atmosphere or crash into functioning satellites.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Two workers who died in a shopping mall explosion that followed a powerful earthquake in Japan last week were asked by a boss to re-enter the building to secure cash.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
The United Kingdom on Thursday came one step closer to getting a new Prime Minister as Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham won a by-election to re-enter Parliament.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
In some cases, clients had already been in prison for decades and had very few, if any, support systems to help them re-enter society.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
