Definitions for encourage
ɛnˈkɜr ɪdʒ, -ˈkʌr-en·cour·age

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. promote, advance, boost, further, encourageverb

   contribute to the progress or growth of

   "I am promoting the use of computers in the classroom"

2. encourageverb

   inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to

3. encourageverb

   spur on

   "His financial success encouraged him to look for a wife"

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. encourageverb

   To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.

   I encouraged him during his race.

2. encourageverb

   To spur on, strongly recommend.

   We encourage the use of bicycles in the town centre.

3. encourageverb

   To foster, give help or patronage

   The royal family has always encouraged the arts in word and deed

4. Etymology: encoragen, from encoragier, from encoragier from "courage". Displaced native belden (from bieldan), bealden (from bealdian), herten (from hiertan), elnian.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Encourageverb

   to give courage to; to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope; to raise, or to increase, the confidence of; to animate; enhearten; to incite; to help forward; -- the opposite of discourage

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Encourage

   en-kur′āj, v.t. to put courage in: to inspire with spirit or hope: to incite: to patronise: to cherish.—ns. Encour′agement, act of encouraging: that which encourages; Encour′ager,—p.adj. Encour′aging, giving ground to hope for success.—adv. Encour′agingly. [O. Fr. encoragier (Fr. encourager)—en, to make, corage, courage.]

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. encourage

   Give support, motivation, confidence and positivity to each other.

   Cheerleaders cheering a football game in the crowd

   Submitted by JP03 on February 15, 2015  

2. encourage

   Give support, motivation, confidence, optimism and positivity to each other.

   We encourage each other to achieve knowing we are a united humanity working together with universal beings for the optimum health and shared prosperity of all animals, human beings and living organisms on planet earth.

   Submitted by MaryC on April 1, 2020  

Matched Categories

1. • Induce
   • Inspire
   • Support

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'encourage' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2056

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'encourage' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2187

3. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'encourage' in Verbs Frequency: #200

How to pronounce encourage?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say encourage in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of encourage in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of encourage in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of encourage in a Sentence

1. Nick Hall:

   People are scared right now, and the Bible has tons to say to us in moments just like this, the Bible Quarantine is our effort to encourage people not to waste these days binge-watching Netflix episodes, but rather to let them change us while we find ways to love our neighbor, and be the church.

2. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder:

   I encourage all Michiganders to... put safety first, especially while driving and heating their homes.

3. Yasutoshi Nishimura:

   What's most important now is to protect jobs and help businesses survive the pandemic, we're not at a stage yet where we want to stimulate consumption and encourage people to travel a lot. Efforts to stimulate consumption should wait a bit more.

4. Nina McLemore boutiquesNina McLemore:

   With Zoom and Skype, when you think about it, you're much more conscious of how that person looks because that's all you see, just them, i know a lot of our customers personally. I've been reaching out to encourage them to buy now, so that we have enough money to make payroll.

5. Stacy Kennedy:

   Making small changes in your diet can be really helpful for cancer prevention, for somebody already on a plant-based diet this study can help inform their choices about what to include in their meals, and for somebody who is eating more red meat this could encourage them to gradually cut back on that and add more fish and vegetables.

Popularity rank by frequency of use