enterprising
Americanadjective
-
ready to undertake projects of importance or difficulty, or untried schemes; energetic in carrying out any undertaking.
Business is in need of enterprising young people.
- Synonyms:
- adventurous, resourceful, venturesome, venturous
-
characterized by great imagination or initiative.
an enterprising foreign policy.
adjective
Synonym Usage
See ambitious.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of enterprising
First recorded in 1565–75; enterprise + -ing 2
Explanation
If you are enterprising, you are creative and show initiative. Were you the kid who bought candy before school and sold it during school at a profit? If so, you were an enterprising little one. Though it has the word, enterprise, in it and is often used to describe people who set up businesses to fill a need, enterprising can be used for any kind of display of creative initiative. Kids who decide on their own to build a skate park are enterprising, as is a dance company that is able to perform a piece on a shoestring budget.
Vocabulary lists containing enterprising
"Earth (A Gift Shop)," Vocabulary from the short story
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
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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.
Cruise’s ambition is moot if he’s otherwise resigned himself to crowd-pleasers, making his occasional enterprising choices look even more daring.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
Word spread quickly, and soon a throng of smartphone-wielding citizens had surrounded the immigration enforcement van, which couldn’t move because one enterprising, early-arriving activist had slid underneath it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Across universities, some enterprising parents have set up the sort of WhatsApp group chats you'd more typically find being used when children are at school.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
The oil curse will lay less heavily on its people, as it already has its neighbors—oil-rich governments once typically didn’t need to care whether their subjects were enterprising, productive and educated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
“He didn’t expect you to be enterprising enough to take pictures of the files and call the phone numbers and meet with me.”
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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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.
