facilitate
Americanverb (used with object)
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facilitates,
present (3rd person singular)
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facilitated,
past participle, past
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facilitating
present participle
-
to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.).
Careful planning facilitates any kind of work.
-
to lead or moderate (a discussion, workshop, etc.), especially as a person trained to do so.
An instructor will facilitate the online discussions, providing students with the questions beforehand.
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to assist the progress of (a person).
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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facilitatesimple
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facilitatessimple
-
have facilitatedperfect
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has facilitatedperfect
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am facilitatingprogressive
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are facilitatingprogressive
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is facilitatingprogressive
-
have been facilitatingperfect progressive
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has been facilitatingperfect progressive
Past
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facilitatedsimple
-
had facilitatedperfect
-
was facilitatingprogressive
-
were facilitatingprogressive
-
had been facilitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of facilitate
First recorded in 1605–15; facilit(y) + -ate 1
Explanation
To facilitate means to make something easier. If your best friend is very shy, you could facilitate her efforts to meet new people. Facilitate comes from the Latin facilis, for "easy." It means to make something easier or more likely to happen. You facilitate growth or a process, as opposed to, say, dinner. Often in business meetings someone will be assigned to facilitate a discussion so people don't just sit in awkward silence. Synonyms are ease, simplify, expedite, and assist.
Vocabulary lists containing facilitate
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 3
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Make Do: Fac
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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:
Monaco introduced an offence of presumed money laundering to facilitate the prosecution of cases involving suspicious funds.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Actually identifying the vast majority of doctors who facilitate abortions would be challenging, to say the least.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026
In the past year, Fenkel and Katz have traveled the world meeting with potential partners that could facilitate A24 entry into foreign markets, people familiar with the matter said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
The judge said Marimi's allegations "at best suggest that US government officials exerted pressure on Libyan officials to facilitate a rendition, not that US government officials directed or controlled the challenged conduct."
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
There was even a train system to facilitate transporting the miners from the Nut to the very center of the main town in District 2.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
Aviation and the tourism it facilitates generated economic activity equivalent to 27% of the emirate’s gross domestic product in 2023, according to a study by Oxford Economics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says it facilitates clinical research, but it is still too early to know whether psychedelic treatments might one day become routinely available.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Counter, which facilitates gold trading in France, said central banks had been moving their reserves around for about a decade.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
"However, our data show that water mainly facilitates mantle melting. The key factor for high gold concentrations is the high - and in part repeated - degree of melting."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
For the plant the change is highly disadvantageous, but it facilitates harvest by humans—the grain waits on the stem to be collected.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Agents wanted Kao to help them find more records that would back up his account and asked him to point them toward lobbyists in D.C. who he said facilitated the pay-for-play scheme.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
The app features a generous free usage option along with paid subscription tiers, and Meta plans eventually to monetize the agent by taking a cut of sales facilitated by the agent.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
Still, “the colleagues who facilitated his ouster accuse him of a degree of deception that is untenable for any executive and dangerous for a leader of such a transformative technology.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Her family's support was vital in the early years, but her rise to national recognition came after she joined the Railways - a transition facilitated by Diana Edulji - and moved to Mumbai.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
A public that had grown up with news illustrations and hazy photo layouts was now treated to breathtaking action shots facilitated by vastly improved photographic equipment.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
It is performing two tasks superbly and simultaneously: the implementing of a naval blockade of Iran and facilitating the export of non-Iran oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
"Are they happening together or not? At which molecular site? And how is the water network facilitating the proton hop?"
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
It does still bar them from knowingly or recklessly facilitating such sales, and it requires them to take “reasonable measures” to prevent them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
By facilitating an open conversation that nails down the details of your offer, you can provide for your great-nephew and avoid friction with your wife.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
Writing empowered European societies by facilitating political administration and economic exchanges, motivating and guiding exploration and conquest, and making available a range of information and human experience extending into remote places and times.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
