facilitate
Americanverb (used with object)
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facilitates,
present (3rd person singular)
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facilitated,
past participle, past
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facilitating
present participle
-
to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.).
Careful planning facilitates any kind of work.
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to lead or moderate (a discussion, workshop, etc.), especially as a person trained to do so.
An instructor will facilitate the online discussions, providing students with the questions beforehand.
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to assist the progress of (a person).
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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facilitatesimple
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facilitatessimple
-
have facilitatedperfect
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has facilitatedperfect
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am facilitatingprogressive
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are facilitatingprogressive
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is facilitatingprogressive
-
have been facilitatingperfect progressive
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has been facilitatingperfect progressive
Past
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facilitatedsimple
-
had facilitatedperfect
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was facilitatingprogressive
-
were facilitatingprogressive
-
had been facilitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of facilitate
First recorded in 1605–15; facilit(y) + -ate 1
Explanation
To facilitate means to make something easier. If your best friend is very shy, you could facilitate her efforts to meet new people. Facilitate comes from the Latin facilis, for "easy." It means to make something easier or more likely to happen. You facilitate growth or a process, as opposed to, say, dinner. Often in business meetings someone will be assigned to facilitate a discussion so people don't just sit in awkward silence. Synonyms are ease, simplify, expedite, and assist.
Vocabulary lists containing facilitate
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 3
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Make Do: Fac
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ACT Vocabulary List
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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:
It acknowledged that being separated from a baby following birth could be distressing and said its teams worked to facilitate contact "at the earliest safe opportunity".
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
She helps facilitate the Outdoor Equity program aimed at helping young people of color find belonging in outdoor spaces through hiking, camping, and kayaking, while advocating around environmental racism and access to nature.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
To facilitate an apples-to-apples comparison, I converted the chart’s returns into daily averages.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
KAA said it was "working closely with the relevant aviation agencies, airlines and other stakeholders to manage the situation, minimise disruption and facilitate the smooth flow of airport operations."
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
His was the topmost room in the Seaman's Rest, a high and spindly building built on a rocky outcrop to facilitate smuggling.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Counter, which facilitates gold trading in France, said central banks had been moving their reserves around for about a decade.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
People do this because rolling funds into a plan often facilitates another maneuver and the funds are often still accessible.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
"However, our data show that water mainly facilitates mantle melting. The key factor for high gold concentrations is the high - and in part repeated - degree of melting."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
On any given week, Longwell’s political strategy and communications firm Longwell Partners facilitates multiple focus-group discussions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
Usually, linguistic change is a crucial marker of a modification in the way in which people think—it both facilitates that change and makes it easier for us to recognize it.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The investigation found Leonard received $66 million in cash and equity from four companies facilitated by Ballmer and Clippers executives at the behest of Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and then-agent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
A Spanish police report leaked last week flagged "total permissiveness" by Moroccan security forces during the rush, saying their numbers at the Ceuta border were lower than usual and that some actively facilitated the crossings.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Navy data in a report over the weekend that said the U.S. facilitated 74 transits through Hormuz from Thursday through Saturday, or around 25 transits a day on average.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
On top of the purchase price, FSG have since facilitated intra-group loans of about £218m, meaning a total outlay of about £518m.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Having sympathetic warders facilitated one of our most vital tasks on Robben Island: communication.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The NBA penalized the Los Angeles Clippers for violating salary-cap rules by facilitating outside payments to star player Kawhi Leonard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Indiana acknowledged that Planned Parenthood was facilitating legal abortions.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026
"We are committed to facilitating appropriate consideration of the use of character references following conviction, acknowledging that there will be a broad range of views. "
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
"Releasing her in particular would go a long way to facilitating Myanmar's re-invitation at the political level," Michaels said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
Hubler could make hundreds of millions facilitating the idiocy of Morgan Stanley’s customers.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Definitions 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.
