enjoins

verb

present tense third-person singular of enjoin
1
as in demands
to ask for (something) earnestly or with authority police enjoined the community's full cooperation in getting rid of the drug dealers

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in instructs
to issue orders to (someone) by right of authority undeterred, the captain enjoined his crew to sail at full speed into the mine-filled harbor

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in forbids
to order not to do or use or to be done or used Quakerism enjoins the taking of human life

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of enjoins The result will be a legal race to see which of those courts enjoins the policy first. — John E. Jones Iii, The Conversation, 22 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enjoins
  1. demands
  2. instructs
  3. forbids
  4. requires
  5. tells
  6. prohibits
  7. asks
  8. orders
Verb
  • Whether the genre is romantasy or autofiction, making up stories often demands making up stories about real people — exploiting them — to serve a narrative purpose.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026
  • Their calendars, for instance, encode a sophisticated awareness of astronomical cycles that demands advanced calculations.
    — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 13 July 2026
Definition of demands
Verb
  • Erez picks it up, stares through the crosshairs, as a voice on the phone instructs them how to aim and shoot.
    — Marisa Fox, Rolling Stone, 16 July 2026
  • Diranersen is what’s called an antisense oligonucleotide that doesn't attack tau buildup but instead instructs a tau-producing gene to produce less.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 14 July 2026
Definition of instructs
Verb
  • In Sunset Beach, an ordinance forbids metal shovels on the beach, and digging anything more than 18 inches deep or five feet wide, police say.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 13 July 2026
  • Enid has to bring its appeal to the state agency in large part due to a 2015 law that forbids cities and counties from establishing their own regulations on oil and gas operations.
    — Nick Bowlin, ProPublica, 30 June 2026
Definition of forbids
Verb
  • The Sandra Bland Act signed into law in 2017 requires that county jails help get inmates with mental health and substance abuse issues treatment, and help expedite the bailing process for those who meet these requirements.
    — Rachel Royster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 July 2026
  • The law requires only one member of the search committee to be a faculty member, but that doesn’t limit the board from engaging more faculty members in the process to get a wider array of feedback.
    — Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman, 14 July 2026
Definition of requires
Verb
  • The thing is Georgia wasn’t antagonizing her (and Ariana tells her as much).
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 16 July 2026
  • Blake’s 7 tells the story of Roj Blake, a political dissident working against the totalitarian Federation controlling Earth and its colonies.
    — William Worrall, Space.com, 15 July 2026
Definition of tells
Verb
  • This bill prohibits local jurisdictions from establishing requirements for commercial solar energy facilities that are more restrictive than the state law.
    — Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 20 July 2026
  • For instance, the European Union AI Act specifically prohibits AI systems that infer emotions in workplace and educational settings.
    — Stu Sjouwerman, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
Definition of prohibits
Verb
  • Videos posted on Facebook and X show the street preachers speaking with police officers when one of the preachers asks if someone can be cited for misgendering a transgender person.
    — Emily Holshouser, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 July 2026
  • Placing a special focus on R&B and new music discovery, Grice often weaves games into his variety show; a particularly viral bit asks guests to sing in a game of word association.
    — Rachel Brodsky, Time, 14 July 2026
Definition of asks
Verb
  • In one of the most memorable scenes from Homer’s 2,800-year-old poem, Odysseus ties himself to a ship mast and orders his crew to plug their ears with beeswax, so as not to be lured in by the dulcet yet deadly songs of the Sirens.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 14 July 2026
  • Examples are a prompt that orders the LLM to provide steps for developing inhalable Anthrax spores, or, in the case of LLMs from Chinese developers, make references to the iconic Tank Man from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
    — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 13 July 2026
Definition of orders

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enjoining
enjoins
enjoy
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Cite this Entry

“Enjoins.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enjoins. Accessed 22 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on enjoins

Nglish: Translation of enjoins for Spanish Speakers

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