encourage

From Wiktionary
encourage is one of the 1000 most common headwords.
employ - encourage - end

Pronunciation[change]

Verb[change]

Plain form
encourage

Third-person singular
encourages

Past tense
encouraged

Past participle
encouraged

Present participle
encouraging

Encourage is on the Academic Vocabulary List.
  1. (transitive) If you encourage someone, you make them feel that they want to, or can, do something.
    We're trying to encourage more people to give money to the hospital.
    I encouraged my son to audition for the school play.
    It will be difficult, but I'm encouraged by our success so far.
  2. (transitive) If encourages , makes more likely to happen.
    The water encourages the breakdown of the wood.

Synonyms[change]

Antonyms[change]

Related words[change]