empowerment
Britishnoun
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the giving or delegation of power or authority; authorization
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the giving of an ability; enablement or permission
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(in South Africa) a policy of providing special opportunities in employment, training, etc for Black people and others disadvantaged under apartheid
Explanation
Empowerment is the power granted by one person or institution to another. The government can grant empowerment to a department to effect change, or a person can grant empowerment to her lawyer to sign contracts on her behalf. In the US of the 1950s and 60s, there were a number of groups that sought empowerment against oppression. Some of these included the Civil Rights Movement, led by a number of powerful members including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. During this period, César Chávez worked for the rights of Latinos and farm workers. There were a number of other empowerment movements as well, each working to gain power for an oppressed group.
Vocabulary lists containing empowerment
President Trump's Second State of the Union Address (2019)
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Peace Corps Lingo
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Where Wolves Don't Die
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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.
“We were fighting not only for sewer, potholes and police protection but for self-determination and empowerment of our community,” Martinez de Vara wrote in a firsthand account of the incorporation campaign.
From Salon • May 3, 2026
Fans connect, often viscerally, to Wolf's lyrics, which sit at the messy intersection of love, obsession, self-doubt and empowerment.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
For York and Sacagawea, the expedition offered, briefly, agency and empowerment, only for these to disappear as they returned east.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
And at “Karolchella,” the first all-women mariachi ensemble in the United States demonstrated what female empowerment can look like, despite performing in a historically male-dominated music genre.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
It’s a brief moment of female empowerment, which unfortunately isn’t always ingrained in other arenas of our culture.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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.
