encourage
Syllables: en·cour·age/ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ɪnˈkʊ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/
encourage verb: to mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
Verb
encourage (third-person singular simple present encourages, present participle encouraging, simple past and past participle encouraged)
- To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
- I encouraged him during his race.
- Delia's coach encouraged her to focus on the positives.
- Antonyms:
- discourage, dishearten
- To spur on, strongly recommend.
- We encourage the use of bicycles in the town centre.
- We encourage you to cycle instead of taking the car.
- To foster, give help or patronage.
- The royal family has always encouraged the arts in word and deed.
- In addition the Marquess built a brickworks adjacent to the colliery, and also greatly improved the harbour to encourage coastal shipping.1960 January, Iain D. O. Frew, “The Brora Colliery Tramway”, in Railway Magazine, page 55
encourage meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
encourage in Hindi
- mentally support or motivate
- प्रेरित करना prerit karnā
encourage in Tamil
- ஊக்கமளி, ஊக்குவி, ஊக்கப்படுத்து, ஊக்கமூட்டு, தூண்டு, உற்சாகமூட்டு
encourage in Marathi
- प्रोत्साहन देणे, प्रोत्साहित करणे
encourage in Urdu
- ڈھارس دینا, دل رکھنا, حوصلہ افزائی کرنا, ہمت بڑھانا, جی بڑھانا, پیٹھ ٹھونکنا
More languagesFewer languages
- encourage in Bengali
- উত্সাহিত করা, অনুপ্রাণিত করা, অনুপ্রেরণা দেওয়া, আশা দেওয়া
- encourage in Telugu
- ప్రోత్సాహము prōtsāhamu
- encourage in Malayalam
- ധൈര്യപ്പെടുത്തുക, പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കുക, ആത്മവിശ്വാസം വർദ്ധിപ്പിക്കുക
- encourage in Kannada
- ಪುರಿಯಿಡು, ಎರ್ದೆಗೊಡು, ಎದೆಕೊಡು, ಎದೆಗೊಡು
- encourage in Punjabi
- ਉਤਸ਼ਾਹਿਤ ਕਰਨਾ
- encourage in Odia
- ଉତ୍ସାହିତ କରିବା
- encourage in Nepali
- तताउनु tatāunu
- encourage in Arabic
- شَجَّعَ šajjaʕa
- encourage in Persian
- تشویق کردن tašviq kardan
- encourage in Thai
- ให้กำลังใจ, ส่งเสริม sòng-sə̌əm
- encourage in Vietnamese
- cổ vũ, khích lệ, động viên
Examples of encourage in a sentence
- The visitors we do not encourage are the many small boys who slip in unobserved and are a danger to themselves and the staff.1960 April, A. W. Bennett, “A Locomotive Shedmaster's Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 273:
- This does not encourage our ability to return to community life outside.1987 December 20, Tim Scaggs, “No Other Choice But To Go On A Hunger Strike”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 23, page 5:
Synonyms of encourage
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of encourage
| third-person singular present | encourages |
|---|---|
| present participle | encouraging |
| past participle | encouraged |
| past | encouraged |
| alternative form (archaic) | incourage |
Origin of encourage
From Middle English encouragen, encoragen, from Anglo-Norman encoragier, from Old French encoragier. Displaced native Old English hiertan, tyhtan, and trymman. By surface analysis, en- + courage.
Words formed from encourage
Questions about encourage
- What does encourage mean?
- Encourage means to mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
- What is encourage in Hindi?
- Encourage in Hindi is प्रेरित करना (prerit karnā). See Encourage meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use encourage in a sentence?
- The visitors we do not encourage are the many small boys who slip in unobserved and are a danger to themselves and the staff.
- What part of speech is encourage?
- Encourage is a verb.
- How do you pronounce encourage?
- Encourage is pronounced /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/.
- What is the past tense of encourage?
- The past tense of encourage is encouraged.
Words near encourage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: encourage (page history and authors); encourage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encourage (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); encourage (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encourage (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encourage (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encourage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encourage (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); encourage (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-encourage.ogg.
Cite this entry: “encourage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/encourage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.