facilitate

verb

fa·cil·i·tate fə-ˈsi-lə-ˌtāt

facilitated; facilitating

Synonyms of facilitate next

transitive verb

: to make easier : help bring about

facilitate growth

facilitative

fə-ˈsi-lə-ˌtā-tiv

adjective

Did you know?

As with so many English words, it's easy to find a Latin origin for facilitate. It traces back to the Latin adjective facilis, meaning "easy." Other descendants of facilis in English include facile ("easy to do"), facility ("the quality of being easily performed"), faculty ("ability"), and difficult (from dis- plus facilis, which equals "not easy"). Facilis in turn comes from facere, a Latin verb meaning "to make or do." Facere has played a role in the development of dozens of English words, ranging from affect to surfeit.

Example Sentences

The strength of the inner identities that black women forged and nurtured during slavery facilitated the transition to freedom. —

Darlene Clark Hine, Lure and Loathing, 1993

What physical events might have facilitated the evolution of macroscopic animals? —

Andrew H. Knoll, Scientific American, October 1991

Nothing so facilitates writing as actually having something to say, yet the conditions under which, and the tools with which, writing is done can contribute to facility—or to difficulty. —

Joseph Epstein, The Middle of My Tether, 1983

Cutting taxes may facilitate economic recovery. Her rise to power was facilitated by her influential friends. The moderator's role is to facilitate the discussion by asking appropriate questions. See More

Recent Examples on the Web Abbott's request this month came through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which facilitates state-level mutual aid nationwide. —

Sarah Rankin, ajc, 1 June 2023 For example, the Chinese government launched the Cross-Border Interbank Payments System, or CIPS, in 2015 to facilitate cross-border payments in yuan. —

Tuugi Chuluun, The Conversation, 1 June 2023 Instead of using them to simply facilitate in-game payments, why not employ NFTs as the building blocks of the game itself? —

Mark Soares, Rolling Stone, 31 May 2023 In its first outside fundraising round, MoonPay, which facilitates crypto purchases with dollars and other fiat currency, raised $555 million at a $3.4 billion valuation, but only $405 million went to shares for investors, according to a person familiar with the situation, cited by The Information. —

Ben Weiss, Fortune Crypto, 31 May 2023 The complaint alleges that Avid, which is based in Tucson, Arizona, facilitated more than 1 million scam calls—including Social Security scams, Medicare scams, credit card scams, and car loan scams. —

Scott Nover, Quartz, 25 May 2023 One in 10 even mentioned the idea came from recommendations by influencers on social media, where more apps are integrating storefronts that facilitate ordering one from popular Chinese internet retailers like DHGate and AliExpress. —

Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 9 May 2023 The Warhol Foundation and the Artist Rights Society (ARS) have also launched a new line of merchandise specifically for Brant that opens May 4th, 2023, and the show is sponsored by Tiffany & Co, who facilitated Andy Warhol’s early career in New York. —

Alexandra Bregman, Forbes, 4 May 2023 In March 2019, the pair sold much of the property to the South Australia government to facilitate long-term protection and preservation, as Science’s Elizabeth Finkel reported. —

Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 May 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'facilitate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.