empower

1 give or delegate power or authority to; "She authorized her assistant to sign the papers" [syn: authorise, authorize]

2 give qualities or abilities to [syn: endow, indue, gift, invest, endue]

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊə(r)

Etymology

Verb

1. To give permission or power to do something.
2. Abstractly, to give the confidence to do something.

   John found that starting up his own business empowered him greatly in social situations.

Synonyms

• sense give permission to allow, let, permit
• sense give confidence to inspire

Antonyms

• sense give permission to ban, bar, forbid, prohibit
• sense give confidence to disempower, dishearten, disspirit

Derived terms

• empowerment

Translations

• Czech: zmocnit
• Finnish: valtuuttaa (1)
• French: autoriser
• German: bevollmächtigen, ermächtigen (to zu); befähigen (for zu);
• Greek: (1) εξουσιοδοτώ (eksusiodoto), (2) παρέχω (parekho)
• Spanish: empoderar

Variants of the term empower occur in:

• Empower America, a conservative think tank in the U.S.
• EMPOWER, a Thai organization supporting sex workers
• Empower The People, Bret Schundler's conservative New Jersey organization
• EmPower, a standard for 15 Volt DC power outlets in passenger airplanes
• Empower, the flow of emergy.
• Empower and Empower2, HPLC software developed by Waters Corporation.
• EmPower, A web content management system for ColdFusion by Ektron Corporation.
• Empower Energy Solutions, a subsidiary company of Dubai Holding which provides district cooling in Dubai.
• Empowerment

accredit, arm, assign, authorize, certificate, certify, charge, charter, clothe, clothe with power, commission, commit, consign, delegate, depute, deputize, detach, detail, devolute, devolve, devolve upon, enable, endow, endue, enfranchise, entitle, entrust, franchise, give in charge, give official sanction, give power, invest, legalize, legitimize, license, mission, patent, post, privilege, ratify, sanction, send out, transfer, validate, vest, warrant