endowed

American  

[en-doud] / ɛnˈdaʊd /

adjective

1. supported by a permanent fund or source of income.

   A cooperative owned by 50 families set up the endowed scholarship in 2000.

2. naturally possessing a certain quality, talent, physical feature, or other advantage, especially a sexually attractive feature.

   She bunched up the blouse behind her to look at herself and sighed at her modestly endowed body.

   Countries far less endowed than ours have made greater economic progress through greater coherence and unity of purpose.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of endow.

Other Word Forms

• unendowed
  adjective
• well-endowed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of endowed

endow ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

When you're stuck on a really tricky math problem, you might ask your best friend for help, especially if she happens to be endowed with impressive mathematical skills. Endowed means "provided or equipped with." When you have a special ability, you can say you're endowed with it. You can also be endowed with a quality, like beauty. Endowed is often used to describe something you're born with, though it can also refer to something that's been learned. Endowed traditionally meant "provided with money," especially when it came to a woman's dowry, the money she brought into a marriage. It's still used this way when someone donates, or endows, money to an institution.

Example Sentences

Or the meeting in that play between Welsh, Scottish and Irish captains, each endowed by Shakespeare with a distinctive accent?

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026

We have no heirs and plan to leave our assets to an endowed scholarship at my alma mater, plus a smaller gift to a local university program.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 8, 2026

“And when you were up on the rock, then every crystal, crack, and ripple was endowed with indissoluble, life-saving importance, each dike and chickenhead inalienably itself.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 20, 2026

The Smithsonian is named for James Smithson, a British scientist who endowed the museum with a gift in his will.

From Slate • Dec. 20, 2025

At a stroke, in a simple formula, Einstein endowed geologists and astronomers with the luxury of billions of years.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson