Empower

//ɪmˈpaʊə(ɹ)// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To give permission, power, or the legal right to do something. transitive

    "Regulations have been made under the Civil Aviation Acts of 1949, 1980 and 1982 which empower Inspectors of Accidents to do these things."

  2. 2
    give or delegate power or authority to wordnet
  3. 3
    To give someone more confidence and/or strength to do something, often by enabling them to increase their control over their own life or situation. transitive

    "John found that starting up his own business empowered him greatly in social situations."

  4. 4
    give qualities or abilities to wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
endowaccreditaggrandizeallowallowarm

Example

More examples

"So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity."

Etymology

From em- + power.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.