Word.ws English Dictionary

enabling

enabling is the present participle and gerund of enable.

Meaning of enable

Verb

enable (third-person singular simple present enables, present participle enabling, simple past and past participle enabled)

  1. To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
    • And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy i:12
    Synonyms:
    empower, endow
  2. To affirm; to make firm and strong.
  3. To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.
    • This was widely interpreted to mean that slavery was once more firmly illegal in England. However, the "positive law" mentioned–i.e., a direct law specifically enabling slavery–existed in many British colonies (although not all), since these colonies had a degree of freedom to write their own law...2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 3:21 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024
    Synonyms:
    let, permit, authorize
  4. To yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.
    • Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.1711 October 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, October 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 195; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume...
    Synonyms:
    allow
  5. To imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.
    • His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.
  6. To put a circuit element into action by supplying a suitable input pulse.

See all 7 meanings of enable

Noun

enabling (plural enablings)

  1. An act or an instance of something being enabled.
    • Despite the epidemic of homosexual abuse of the young by the American clergy, the history of cover-ups and enablings of these abominations by the bishop […]2010, Andrew J. McCauley, Crossing the Threshold of Confusion

Forms of enabling

pluralenablings

Words formed from enabling

Phrases with enabling

Questions about enabling

What does enabling mean?
Enabling means an act or an instance of something being enabled.
What is enabling the present participle and gerund of?
Enabling is the present participle and gerund of enable.
What part of speech is enabling?
Enabling is a noun.
What is the plural of enabling?
The plural of enabling is enablings.

Words near enabling in the dictionary

  1. enabler
  2. enablers
  3. enables
  4. enablest
  5. enableth
  6. enabling
  7. enabling act
  8. enabling acts
  9. enablings
  10. enact
  11. enactable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: enabling (page history and authors); enable (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “enabling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/enabling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.