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.
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
“Are our moneyed men less enlightened to their own interest, or less enterprising in the pursuit?,” the future Treasury secretary wrote External link in 1780.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
It is symbolic of your enterprising younger self, and all of those fancy cars and five-star vacations that you passed up on, perhaps using that money as a down payment on your next property instead.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 6, 2026
Our enterprising Gravedigger, a true woman of science, engineers a lizard elixir and regenerates the finger into a long tentacle that eventually demands a body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
Out of a committee of supremely enterprising and resourceful members, one managed to outshine the rest in the range of activities he assumed.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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.
