endowed

American  

[en-doud] / ɛnˈdaʊd /

adjective

1. supported by a permanent fund or source of income.

   A cooperative owned by 50 families set up the endowed scholarship in 2000.

2. naturally possessing a certain quality, talent, physical feature, or other advantage, especially a sexually attractive feature.

   She bunched up the blouse behind her to look at herself and sighed at her modestly endowed body.

   Countries far less endowed than ours have made greater economic progress through greater coherence and unity of purpose.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of endow.

Other Word Forms

• unendowed
  adjective
• well-endowed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of endowed

endow ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

When you're stuck on a really tricky math problem, you might ask your best friend for help, especially if she happens to be endowed with impressive mathematical skills. Endowed means "provided or equipped with." When you have a special ability, you can say you're endowed with it. You can also be endowed with a quality, like beauty. Endowed is often used to describe something you're born with, though it can also refer to something that's been learned. Endowed traditionally meant "provided with money," especially when it came to a woman's dowry, the money she brought into a marriage. It's still used this way when someone donates, or endows, money to an institution.

Example Sentences

"SAWs devices are critical to the many of the world's most important technologies," said Eichenfield, senior author of the new study and Gustafson Endowed Chair in Quantum Engineering at CU Boulder.

From Science Daily • Jan. 17, 2026

Endowed with a formidable hauteur, her Jocasta acts graciously, but with an unmistakable note of condescension.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2025

"My team is honored that the NIH is supporting the kind of collaborative science needed to study such a complex system," says Patapoutian, the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology at Scripps Research.

From Science Daily • Oct. 25, 2025

"They claim they've solved it and that the 'case is closed'," says Mr Rao, Hwang Endowed Professor at the University of Washington and author of peer-reviewed studies on the Indus script.

From BBC • Jan. 16, 2025

Endowed with enormous energy and ambition, Palmer was tall and handsome, completely self-assured, and had a quick, inquisitive mind.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler