Showing results for "enabling"

• present participle of enable.

enabling

American  

[en-ey-bling] / ɛnˈeɪ blɪŋ /

adjective

Law.

1. conferring additional legal powers or capacities, especially by removing a barrier to action, suspending required permission, or relaxing oversight: enabling power.

   an enabling act;

   enabling power.

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Etymology

Origin of enabling

First recorded in 1670–80; enable + -ing ²

Explanation

Enabling is a term used for laws that confer legal powers to someone or something. An enabling act makes it possible for authorities to take action. One meaning of the verb enable is "to provide with legal powers," so the adjective formed by adding -ing gets used to describe legislation that has that empowering effect. When new American states were formed out of frontier territories, they could either organize statehood themselves, or they could be admitted into the Union through an "enabling act" of Congress.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

enabling

The women's game is not governed by the Sporting Events Control of Alcohol Act, enabling the competition organiser to make the change.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

“I was in that enabling cycle for years, and I’m not going to be a part of that again!”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

“In the future, AI may undergo sudden, unexpected leaps in intelligence, enabling it to autonomously acquire external resources, replicate itself and develop self-awareness,” according to the regulator.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchard, global head of equities for UBS Wealth Management, also recommends that investors interested in humanoids take a look at the companies enabling them.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 5, 2026

We later discovered that plastic cooking oil caps worked much better as wheels, enabling the trucks to last much longer.

From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba

Related Words

• permissive