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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

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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

After a bruising October for tech stocks, we enter November with a familiar question: Is it time to buy the dip?

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

This creates a brief opportunity for nanoparticles carrying the microRNAs to pass through the barrier and enter the brain, where they can act on genes involved in tumor growth.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026

Now we enter sniper's alley; two minutes left and Hearts pushing hard.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

Ocean waters off Long Beach were closed to swimmers Saturday after a sewer main break, and it’s unclear when the water will be considered safe to enter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

His eyebrows were so bushy they would, Christopher thought, enter a room several seconds before the rest of him.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

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

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

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

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

As the postwar baby boom generation enters its 80s, there aren’t enough workers around to pay for their elders’ pensions, forcing governments to consume an ever-larger portion of national budgets to meet retirees’ entitlements.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

When venom enters the body, however, it can cause snake envenoming.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026

It was, however, the only company to have met its target for internal sewer flooding, or how often wastewater enters a property, every year since 2020-21.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

The senator enters Argentina "with valid travel documents and no legal impediment" via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge linking the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu with Puerto Iguazu, Argentine authorities say.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

I've just stuck the packet under the tea set when Christoffel enters the kitchen.

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse

Its previous human safety testing also provides a potential advantage over entirely new drug candidates that have not yet entered clinical development.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2026

The second time it entered a correction this year and bottomed out was on July 29, when it fell 11% from its June 2 high.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026

President Nawrocki flew back to Warsaw and entered the court building himself early Saturday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

About 10 percent of South African exports to the US entered under the programme in 2025, down from 28 percent in the previous year, he said.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

A ploy to ensure he’d be positively exhausted when we boarded the ship and entered our cabin.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

The mere fact of the US-born pontiff entering Zana means "we are already more than blessed," she told AFP.

From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026

And so, entering FIT’s Special Exhibitions gallery, we begin with “Modes in Miniature,” the first of six sections further divided into subsections, all of them bouncing between lifesize and Lilliputian.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026

"I was sad because I was like, nobody cares about me. I'm unimportant. I'm finally entering middle age and I should do something for me."

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026

The Lakers turned the ball over five times in the third and wound up trailing 85-80 entering the fourth quarter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

Although he’d be entering high school the following September, that transition, exciting to many youngsters, was of little interest to him.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

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