How to use enable in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Enable means 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. Example: “His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.”

Examples of enable by meaning

verbTo qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.

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 apart from that of the home country.2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 3:21 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov...

verbTo yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.

It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible.2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3
Trainers of modern athletes monitor performance by using high tech equipment and biometric bodysuits with embedded sensors to enable detailed analysis of movement, balance, efficiency for athletic performance.2009, Meribeth A. Dayme, Dynamics of the Singing Voice, Springer Science & Business Media, page 174
During 1971-72, spare Type 4s on other regions enabled the whole class to be sidelined, with Class 43s going first.2022 January 12, David Clough, “From Germany with love: a Warship retrospective”, in RAIL, number 948, page 49

verbTo imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.

His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.

More sentences with enable

The plot would have enabled them to get a majority on the board.From the entry plot
The admin changed the forum settings to enable the use of emoticons.From the entry admin
How he looked, the likenesses of him which still remain enable us to imagine.From the entry likeness
The pitch out enabled the catcher to throw out the runner.From the entry pitch out
His retirement and consequent spare time enabled him to travel more.From the entry consequent
Her years of experience enabled her to render a masterly performance.From the entry masterly
Knowing the real reasons for his actions enabled her to view them in a better light.From the entry better light
The ladder holdoff enabled him to clean the gutters easily without the ladder's weight damaging them.From the entry holdoff
Adulthood enables us to survive in the wilderness.From the entry adulthood
His grim determination enabled him to win.From the entry grim
Cuttlefish skin contains chromatophores that enable it to change colour.From the entry chromatophore
I enabled geofencing in my smart home so that the power to my lamps automatically turns on when I arrive home after work.From the entry geofencing
Within the enabling constraints of law, I sell labour to my employer — nothing more, nothing less.2026 July 19, Paul Abela, “Of course my employers need certain private information — but their questions are getting more uncomfortable…. From the entry all in
On the Gold Coast, the wildcard enables her to test the waters.2025 May 8, Kieran Pender, “Steph Gilmore: ‘I was looking for something more, in myself and in my surfing’”, in The Guardian. From the entry Gilmore
Completion of the haul road enabled workers to assemble the bridge piers and deck relatively quickly.2025 July 23, Chris Howe, “Different designs and viaduct variations: Thame Valley Viaduct”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 48. From the entry haul road
Workers confirm each task vocally as they pick, pack, or replenish inventory, enabling seamless two-way communication.2025 May 2, Mol Doak, “Voice Picking Technology Set to Revolutionise UK Warehousing in 2025”, in News Today, United Kingdom, archived from…. From the entry voice-directed warehousing
Adopting a computerlike countermeasure for a problem enabled by computer algorithms is admittedly an unnatural practice.2024 June 5, Ben Guarino, “Defend Yourself against AI Impostor Scams with a Safe Word”, in Scientific American. From the entry admittedly
The popup enables users to choose a value for the input from a collection.2024 October 22, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG), World Wide Web…. From the entry combobox
Spotted-tailed quolls climb well, enabling birds and sugar gliders to be included in their prey.2024, David Owen, David Pemberton, Tasmanian Devil, Allen & Unwin, page 53. From the entry spotted-tailed quoll
And being glazed, it was impervious to London's sooty atmosphere, enabling easier cleaning.2023 December 13, Robin Leleux, “Restored... and a richly deserved award: Findlater's Corner”, in RAIL, number 998, page 43. From the entry impervious
Microtargeting has also enabled advertisers to discriminate in ways that are hard for regulators to catch.2023 April 6, Julia Angwin, “If It’s Advertised to You Online, You Probably Shouldn’t Buy It. Here’s Why.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry microtargeting
The generated games are then used to update the network’s parameters, enabling the agent to learn.2023 June, Daniel J. Mankowitz, Andrea Michi, Anton Zhernov, Marco Gelmi, Marco Selvi, “Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep…. From the entry MCTS
SBOMs are lists of nested software components designed to enable supply chain transparency.2023, Rick Howard, Cybersecurity First Principles: A Reboot of Strategy and Tactics, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN. From the entry SBOM
Increasing globalization in the movement of people and goods is enabling the dispersal of non-native species worldwide.2022 September 12, José Maurício Santos et al., “The current and future distribution of the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) on…. From the entry yellow-fever mosquito
Such a high power-to-weight ratio enabled very fast acceleration and rapid hill climbing.2021 January 13, David Clough, “Trans-Pennine transport transformers”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 60. From the entry hill climbing
Neural network or deep learning technologies are also enabling those that want to distort another individual’s dossier.2021, Glen Whelan, “Personal Pasts”, in Megacorporation: The Infinite Times of Alphabet (Business, Value Creation, and Society)…. From the entry faceswap
The use of masters and submasters will enable suites of rooms to be controlled by one key.2020, Jane M. Wiggins, Facilities Manager's Desk Reference, page 517. From the entry master
As of May 12, Crossrail was liaising with contractors to enable physical work at stations to restart.2020 May 20, “Network News: Clas 345s finally able to serve Heathrow Airport”, in Rail, page 15. From the entry liaise
Subscription and fan donations can enable creators with even modest audience sizes to earn substantial amounts.2020 December 17, Li Jin, “The Creator Economy Needs a Middle Class”, in Harvard Business Review, →ISSN. From the entry superfan
Another technique enabling the creation of a virtual acoustic environment in surround systems is the ambisonic technique.2020 September 1, Dariusz Pleban, Occupational Noise and Workplace Acoustics: Advances in Measurement and Assessment Techniques, CRC…. From the entry ambisonic
The technique enables one to record, process, and reconstruct sound ﬁelds in a fully three-dimensional space.2020 September 1, Dariusz Pleban, Occupational Noise and Workplace Acoustics: Advances in Measurement and Assessment Techniques, CRC…. From the entry ambisonic
This enables the psychocentric to enjoy more exotic forms of tourism.2020, J. Christopher Holloway, Claire Humphreys, “The Demand for Tourism”, in The Business of Tourism, 11th edition, London; Thousand…. From the entry psychocentric
Research on supporting detrans could enable a variety of interventions designed to help detrans people.2020, Rowan Hildebrand-Chupp, “More than ‘canaries in the gender coal mine’: A transfeminist approach to research on detransition”, in The…. From the entry detrans
The ePortal software enables for monitoring, analyzis energy consumption and invoice control.2020, González-Prida, Vicente, Carnero, María Carmen, editors, Advanced Models and Tools for Effective Decision Making Under Uncertainty…. From the entry ePortal
Put easily, instamining is a method that enables coins to be issued unfairly or unevenly.2019 September 23, Prasanna Peshkar, “Instamine vs Premine”, in Cryptoticker. From the entry unevenly

Meaning of enable

verb 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.
verb To affirm; to make firm and strong.
verb To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.

Full definition of enable

Questions about enable in a sentence

How do you use enable in a sentence?: Enable is used as a verb. For example: “His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.”
What is a short sentence with enable?: “His grim determination enabled him to win.”
What does enable mean?: Enable means 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.

Adapted from Wiktionary: enable (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use enable in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/enable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.