encouragement
Americannoun
-
encouragements
plural
-
the act of encouraging.
-
the state of being encouraged.
-
something that encourages.
Praise is the greatest encouragement.
- Synonyms:
- endorsement, lift, boost, support, praise
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of encouragement
Explanation
When you help someone by offering positive words of support and approval, that's encouragement. It must have been the words of encouragement you gave in the airport lounge that helped your friend board the plane. Within the word encouragement we see the word "courage," which means the ability to face danger and deal with it. To encourage, then, is to help develop that ability in someone, while the "ment" at the end makes that development into a noun, the act of giving courage or support to another. You needed a little encouragement to try horse riding again, after your injuries healed.
Vocabulary lists containing encouragement
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Taste of Salt
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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:
Moura says the findings could still offer encouragement to people who have recently started exercising but have not yet noticed changes on the scale.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
“So that gives us great encouragement and being long-term in an environment like this is really hard because of the fast movements and the 24-hour news flow and just so much speed.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Sparking debate among academics, Harvard College Dean David Deming has suggested the "acceptance, or even encouragement" of AI in writing-based courses, according to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
With Musk’s encouragement, Lowe launched Restore Britain later that year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
The others screamed encouragement at me to “get up!” and “move faster!” but I was doing the best I could.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
I wonder how well and efficiently he would have written it with frequent and intermittent shouts being thrown his way, regardless of whether they were insults or encouragements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025
The chat and commenters on Twitter were screaming encouragements, hyped as all hell to have the privilege of watching Malenia fall for the 1,000th time.
From The Verge ● May 11, 2022
If you’ve spent any time on social media or visited an athletic event lately, you’ve surely been bombarded with encouragements to drink more water.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2021
Unhealthy fan culture should be cracked down on, and voting segments of programmes strictly controlled, with encouragements for fans to spend money to vote strictly forbidden, said the notice.
From Reuters ● Sep. 2, 2021
If I had not promoted Mr. Weston’s visits here, and given many little encouragements, and smoothed many little matters, it might not have come to any thing after all.
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
