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facilitation

American  
[fuh-sil-i-tey-shuhn] / fəˌsɪl ɪˈteɪ ʃən /

noun

  1. the act or process of facilitating.

  2. Physiology. the lowering of resistance in a neural pathway to an impulse, resulting from previous or simultaneous stimulation.


facilitation British  
/ fəˌsɪlɪˈteɪʃən /

noun

  1. the act or process of facilitating

  2. physiol the increased ease of transmission of impulses in a nerve fibre, caused by prior excitation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of facilitation

First recorded in 1610–20; facilitate + -ion

Explanation

Use the noun facilitation to describe helping, improving, or making something easier, like the newly widened staircase and hall designed for the facilitation of moving crowds through the museum. The Latin word for "easy," is facilis. You can see this origin in facilitation, which means "the act of making something easier." If you volunteer to help with the facilitation of enrolling new students at a school, you might hand by the door, handing out forms and directing families to the main office. You make the new people's experience better, which is another meaning of facilitation, improvement.

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Vocabulary lists containing facilitation

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.

An earlier version of this article misstated the date of the founding of the Special Investment Facilitation Council.

From New York Times • Mar. 3, 2024

Sources within Recharge Industries have previously acknowledged that a tax raid by Australian federal police on its parent company Scale Facilitation in June last year made finding new funding more difficult.

From BBC • Jan. 29, 2024

Mexico’s Economy Department called on Texas to stop the stepped-up inspections, which began May 8, and said Mexico will take up the issue in Trade Facilitation Committee of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

From Seattle Times • May 15, 2023

To help displaced companies make a fresh start, the Ukraine Investment and Trade Facilitation Center in Lviv, is offering firms rent-free access to office and manufacturing space, a valuable lifeline.

From Reuters • Oct. 8, 2022

Facilitation is a fact, and that means that a stimulus which could not of itself arouse a response can coöperate with another stimulus that has a direct connection with that response, and reinforce its effect.

From Psychology A Study Of Mental Life by Woodworth, Robert S.