encourage

verb

en·cour·age | \ in-ˈkər-ij

, -ˈkə-rij, en-\

encouraged; encouraging

Definition of encourage

transitive verb

1a : to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope : hearten she was encouraged to continue by her early success

b : to attempt to persuade : urge they encouraged him to go back to school

2 : to spur on : stimulate warm weather encourages plant growth

3 : to give help or patronage to : foster government grants designed to encourage conservation

Other Words from encourage Synonyms & Antonyms Choose the Right Synonym More Example Sentences Learn More about encourage

Keep scrolling for more

Choose the Right Synonym for encourage

encourage, inspirit, hearten, embolden mean to fill with courage or strength of purpose. encourage suggests the raising of one's confidence especially by an external agency. the teacher's praise encouraged the students to greater efforts inspirit, somewhat literary, implies instilling life, energy, courage, or vigor into something. patriots inspirited the people to resist hearten implies the lifting of dispiritedness or despondency by an infusion of fresh courage or zeal. a hospital patient heartened by good news embolden implies the giving of courage sufficient to overcome timidity or reluctance. emboldened by her first success, she tried an even more difficult climb

Examples of encourage in a Sentence

They encouraged us in our work. Encourage each other with kind words. The program is meant to encourage savings. Warm weather encourages plant growth. He claims the new regulations will encourage investment. He claims the new regulations will encourage people to invest. We want to encourage students to read more. My parents encouraged me to go back to college. They encouraged her to go.

Recent Examples on the Web

Some other classic health sins hold equally true for the skin under your eyes as well: Smoking, sun exposure, bloat-causers like excessive salt and alcohol, and that be-all end-all, stress, can all encourage dark circles to make an appearance. — Lauren Hubbard, Town & Country, "How to Get Rid of Dark Circles," 4 Feb. 2019 The main difference between this atelier and your average store is that customers aren’t pressured to purchase in real time and experimentation is encouraged. — Jenna Rennert, Vogue, "Chanel’s New Beauty Atelier Is Made for Experimentation (and Perfect Instagrams)," 25 Jan. 2019 Going rogue The Division had one standout idea: The Dark Zone, where players were encouraged to team up to score high-level loot while most of the server tried to gun them down. — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, "This week in games: Call of Duty's battle royale is free-to-try, Steam moved 15 exabytes of data in 2018," 18 Jan. 2019 President Trump and numerous administration officials have said lax asylum laws have encouraged migrants by the thousands to come to the U.S. illegally, but the administration has faced setbacks in attempts to limit asylum seekers. — Jennifer Levitz, WSJ, "Maine’s Largest City Strains Under Asylum-Seeker Influx," 27 Jan. 2019 The American Idol alum officially promoted The Kelly Clarkson Show for the first time on Twitter, encouraging fans to visit the website and follow its social media channels. — Kelly O'sullivan, Country Living, "Kelly Clarkson's New Talk Show Is Officially Coming to TV—Here's What We Know," 26 Jan. 2019 Earlier this week, Microsoft reminded customers that official support for Windows 7 ends on January 14, 2020, even posting an official reminder page to encourage customers to hurry up and adopt Windows 10. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "For some, the glory days of Microsoft are ending in about a year," 18 Jan. 2019 Also, to add to that, some of these programs include meal plans and encourage keeping food diaries. — Alexa Tucker, SELF, "Everything You Need to Know About 10 Popular at-Home Workout Programs," 13 Jan. 2019 Even more, in the literary sense, hopepunk has the power to embed the conscious kindness that Sam encourages within the worldview and worldbuilding of a story itself. — Aja Romano, Vox, "In the era of Trump and apocalyptic change, Hopepunk is a storytelling template for #resistance — and hanging onto your humanity at all costs.," 27 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'encourage.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.