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

With their campaign #RealConvo, these organizations are encouraging people to be more open and honest about everything on social media, particularly their mental health. — Brittney Mcnamara, Teen Vogue, "The #RealConvo Campaign Wants to Make Instagram a More Honest Place," 2 May 2019 Television and camera technology allow viewers to fixate on images down to every last pore and wrinkle, while the framing on phones and social media apps encourages myopic frames of reference. — Vanessa Lawrence, ELLE Decor, "Joan Mitchell's Landscape Paintings Are the Perfect Digital Antidote," 1 May 2019 The company is encouraging consumers to report any incidents to the Mondelēz International LLC customer service line. — Sophia Caraballo, Woman's Day, "Chewy Chips Ahoy Are Being Recalled Due to Potential Choking Hazard," 18 Apr. 2019 Valentine's Day is here, and perhaps the day dedicated to love is finally encouraging Kendall Jenner, who closely guards her relationship status, to publicly display her romance with boyfriend Ben Simmons. — Nicole Saunders, Harper's BAZAAR, "Kendall Jenner and Ben Simmons Show Rare PDA for Valentine's Day Date Night," 14 Feb. 2019 The difficulty of securing sites and the past successes in infecting big-name sites is encouraging more and more criminal groups to enter the booming field. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "E-commerce site is infected not by one, but two card skimmers," 20 Nov. 2018 The Trump administration is doing away with a series of affirmative-action policy documents put in place under former President Barack Obama that encourage colleges and universities to use race in admissions processes to promote campus diversity. — Andrew O'reilly, Fox News, "Trump administration is breaking from Obama-era affirmative action policies," 2 Oct. 2018 Serena Ventures extends relationships, encourages collaboration among portfolio companies, and expands partnership opportunities across my vast network. — Katherine J. Igoe, Marie Claire, "Serena Williams Has Secretly Been Investing in Diverse Companies for the Past 5 Years," 17 Apr. 2019 Stars like Pascale Hutton and Paul Greene have encouraged Hearties to be patient while the network decides how to proceed without Lori, who played Abigail Stanton. — Megan Stein, Country Living, "'When Calls the Heart' Is Returning Tomorrow with a Cryptic 3-Minute Clip," 9 Apr. 2019

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.