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enter

enter

verb (used without object)

to come or go in.
enter-

enter-

variant of entero- before a vowel.

Synonyms

enter

¹ American

[en-ter] / ˈɛn tər /

verb (used without object)

to come or go in.

Knock before you enter.

Antonyms:

leave
to be admitted into a school, competition, etc..

Some contestants enter as late as a day before the race.
to make a beginning (often followed by on orupon ).

We have entered upon a new phase in history.
Theater. to come upon the stage (used in stage directions as the 3rd person imperative singular or plural).

Enter Othello, and Iago at a distance.

verb (used with object)

to come or go into.

He just entered the building. The thought never entered my mind.
to penetrate or pierce.

The bullet entered the flesh.
to put in or insert.

Antonyms:

remove
to become a member of; join.

to enter a club.
to cause to be admitted, as into a school, competition, etc..

to enter a horse in a race.
to make a beginning of or in, or begin upon; engage or become involved in.

He entered the medical profession.
to share in; have an intuitive understanding of.

In order to appreciate the novel, one must be able to enter the spirit of the work.
to make a record of; record or register.

to enter a new word in a dictionary.
Law.
1. to make a formal record of (a fact).
2. to occupy or to take possession of (lands); make an entrance, entry, ingress in, under claim of a right to possession.
3. to file an application for (public lands).
Computers. to put (a document, program, data, etc.) into a computer system.

Enter your new document into the word-processing system.
to put forward, submit, or register formally.

to enter an objection to a proposed action; to enter a bid for a contract.
to report (a ship, cargo, etc.) at the custom house.

verb phrase

enter into
1. to participate in; engage in.
2. to investigate; consider.
  
  We will enter into the question of inherited characteristics at a future time.
3. to sympathize with; share in.
4. to form a constituent part or ingredient of.
  
  There is another factor that enters into the situation.
5. to go into a particular state.
  
  to enter into a state of suspended animation.

enter- ² American

variant of entero- before a vowel.

enteritis.

enter British

/ ˈɛntə /

verb

to come or go into (a place, house, etc)
to penetrate or pierce
(tr) to introduce or insert
to join (a party, organization, etc)
to become involved or take part (in)

to enter a game
to enter into an agreement
(tr) to record (an item such as a commercial transaction) in a journal, account, register, etc
(tr) to record (a name, etc) on a list
(tr) to present or submit

to enter a proposal
(intr) theatre to come on stage: used as a stage direction

enter Juliet
to begin; start

to enter upon a new career
to come into possession (of)
(tr) to place (evidence, a plea, etc) before a court of law or upon the court records
(tr) law
1. to go onto and occupy (land)
2. to file a claim to (public lands)

"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

Usage

What does enter- mean? Enter- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “intestine.” The intestines are the long tract of the digestive system that runs from the stomach to the anus. Enter- is often used in medical terms, especially in anatomy and pathology. Enter- comes from the Greek énteron, meaning “intestine.” A scientific term for the digestive tract (alimentary canal) is enteron, which comes from this same Greek root. The word dysentery, literally meaning “bad bowels,” also derives from the Greek énteron. Enter- is a variant of entero-, which loses its -o- when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use entero- article.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of enter

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English entren, from Old French entrer, from Latin intrāre “to enter,” from intrā intra- ( def. )

Explanation

To enter is to go inside or into a place. When you enter your house after school, you might pet your cat and take off your shoes. You might enter the kitchen to see what's for dinner, or enter the library to look for a book to read. In both cases, you go from one place into another, through a doorway. If you're an actor, the word enter takes on a different meaning: to appear on the stage during a play. The stage directions might read, "Enter the King, stage left." Countries also enter wars, and people enter contests — they register or become involved.

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Vocabulary lists containing enter

5-letter words, List 1

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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:

enter enter- enters entered entering

Lee got his friends to enter the water to help keep the teenager's head above the surface while he swam to get help from a dad who was in a dinghy with his son.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

The model is the last of four 737 MAX planes to receive regulator certification to enter service.

From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 2026

They found that it can enter a charge-ordered state where large numbers of electrons move together extremely slowly while still maintaining quantum coherence.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

In August, a lead attorney announced the city agreed to enter settlement talks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

“I wasn’t lying about being an Usher. I was lying about you being destined to enter the Afterlife tonight. The truth is… it’s the one night a soul should not enter the Afterlife.”

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Slipping along here covertly as Time, Bathsheba fancied she could hear footsteps enter- ing the track at the opposite end.

From Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Soche a one was this Epaminundas, the famous Duke of Thebe, whose vertues gaue hym honour in life, and famous enter- prises, immortalitée of fame after death.

From A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike because all other partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon, euery parte sette forthe in an Oracion vpon questions, verie profitable to bee knowen and redde by Richard Rainolde

On enter- 193:3 ing the house I met his physician, who said that the patient was dying.

From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

But in this, as in all speculative enter- prises, the prizes have been few and the blanks many.

From Everybody's Guide to Money Matters: with a description of the various investments chiefly dealt in on the stock exchange, and the mode of dealing therein by William Cotton

The hope was that they could observe Kirk remotely enter- ing the computer and then identify the security breach.

From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau

The results showed that placing NbSe2 in the cavity significantly increased its superconducting critical temperature, the temperature below which the material enters its superconducting state.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026

Higher oil prices as the Iran war enters an eighth month have played a role in pushing Treasury yields higher, mainly because investors want to get paid more to offset inflation risks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

Digger enters that room like a gladiator braving the ring.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

A certain primness enters the author’s account of the summer vacation Clara and Brahms took together in 1855.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

But whenever that worry enters, I drive it away as fast as I can, just as you have to chase away an ant as soon as you spot it.

From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman

Roberts entered Tennessee's maximum-security prison for women, now known as Debra K Johnson Rehabilitation Center, in Nashville in December 2006.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

When the researchers blocked NAMPT, NAD levels fell and the cancer stem cells entered an energy crisis.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

His base case is that, since March 2020, G-7 bonds “have entered a structural bear market after a 39-year bull market.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

At age 12, Martínez Celaya entered into an apprenticeship with a painter — the start of his formal artistic training — and around the same time he began cultivating an interest in writing and philosophy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

I entered the store, leaving Sal napping in the shade of the bench.

From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney

According to some outside medical experts, she likely “survived the procedure because the drug, pentobarbital, probably poured into tissue surrounding the insertion sites instead of entering her bloodstream.”

From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026

Those who used the approach included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was a fund manager before entering the government.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

Evie, 22, from Cornwall, says she opted out of entering the workplace pension at the London events company she works for.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

The RSI, a momentum measure, is seen as entering oversold territory when it falls below 30.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

He placed restrictions on what he would eat, created a list of potential visitors who’d be allowed to see him and another list of those who’d be summarily barred from entering his room.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023