Jump To:

• enterprise
  enterprise

  noun

  a project undertaken or to be undertaken, especially one that is important or difficult or that requires boldness or energy.
• Enterprise
  Enterprise

  noun

  a city in southern Alabama.

enterprise

¹ American  

[en-ter-prahyz] / ˈɛn tərˌpraɪz /

noun

• enterprises
  plural

1. 

   a project undertaken or to be undertaken, especially one that is important or difficult or that requires boldness or energy.

   To keep the peace is a difficult enterprise.

   Synonyms:

   venture, undertaking, plan

2. a plan for such a project.

3. participation or engagement in such projects.

   Our country was formed by the enterprise of resolute men and women.

4. boldness or readiness in undertaking; adventurous spirit; ingenuity.

   Synonyms:

   ambition, push, aggressiveness, drive

5. a company organized for commercial purposes; business firm.

6. Military. none Enterprise the first nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1961, with a displacement of 89,000 tons (80,723 metric tons) and eight reactors.

7. U.S. Aerospace. none Enterprise the first space shuttle, used for atmospheric flight and landing tests.

---

adjective

1. intended for use or consumption by a business firm rather than a consumer.

   enterprise security; enterprise software.

Enterprise ² American  

[en-ter-prahyz] / ˈɛn tərˌpraɪz /

noun

1. a city in southern Alabama.

---

enterprise British  

/ ˈɛntəˌpraɪz /

noun

1. a project or undertaking, esp one that requires boldness or effort

2. participation in such projects

3. readiness to embark on new ventures; boldness and energy

4. 1. initiative in business

   2. ( as modifier )

      the enterprise culture

5. a business unit; a company or firm

---

enterprise Idioms  

1. see free enterprise.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• enterpriser
  noun
• enterpriseless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• enterprises
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of enterprise

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Middle French, noun use of feminine of entrepris (past participle of entreprendre “to undertake”), from Latin inter- inter- + prehēnsus, prēnsus, past participle of prehendere, prēndere “to grasp, seize,” equivalent to pre- pre- + -hendere “to grasp”

---

Explanation

Enterprise describes a readiness to act boldly to get something started, like the enterprise it takes to start a charity with only a dream and a few dollars. Another meaning of enterprise is "a business venture," like a frozen yogurt enterprise. It requires a lot of determination, hard work and the steady belief that people will love your yogurt. People will say you show extraordinary enterprise for your willingness to take on such a challenging project, meaning you have initiative and drive.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

enterprise Enterprise enterprises

But then he literally creates a monster, and the whole enterprise becomes utterly reckless and irresponsible and all about his own sort of grandiosity.

From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026

Aldaron co-founder Jay Grewal co-founded Palantir’s commercial business, where he led a team of over 600 engineers, and helped set up its enterprise data management platform.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Microsoft is ”too big not to” see some pressure from a broader AI selloff, but to Materne it’s still “a stock for all seasons, well-positioned to benefit from enterprise AI adoption over the coming years.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026

Aldaron targets U.S. companies with enterprise values of $200 million to $1 billion in healthcare, industrial and financial services.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

With hard work White built it into a hugely profitable enterprise, but he didn’t like spending money on himself.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Shares of Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have been major winners this year, but one analyst is questioning whether there’s much room left for them to rally.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

In 2006, Shelby told the American Enterprise Institute that having a white mother and black father has been a “profound advantage” because it demystified race.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

It comes over a year after Syngenta was awarded £2.2m from Scottish Enterprise to expand production at the site.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Whitesides co-founded nonprofit organization Megafire Action to advocate for policy solutions to prevent massive wildfires and served as a member of the Antelope Valley Economic Development and Growth Enterprise board of directors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

As Phillip Swagel, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, put it, “We want to give people all the opportunities they want. We want to remove the barriers to upward mobility.”

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

"The cyber defence capabilities will enable enterprises and governments to defend themselves against threat actors that are jailbreaking closed models to perform cyberattacks," Mistral's Chief Scientist Guillaume Lample said in the statement.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

He wrote that Microsoft’s Autopilot AI agent is the one “most enterprises will actually deploy.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

We’ll continue to gather feedback from early testers as we iterate on guardrails before making Argon available to developers, enterprises, and consumers as soon as possible.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

Measure LA would change the way public works are administered in Los Angeles, allow the city to lease its underused land to tenants and open the door to greater city involvement in business enterprises.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Perhaps, however, we are linked in circuits for the storage, processing, and retrieval of information, since this appears to be the most basic and universal of all human enterprises.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• activity
• business
• company
• firm
• operation
• program
• project
• trade
• venture

---