empower

• empowre (archaic)
• impower (archaic)
• impowre (obsolete)

em- +‎ power

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  Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)

• Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)

empower (third-person singular simple present empowers, present participle empowering, simple past and past participle empowered)

1. (transitive) To give permission, power, or the legal right to do something.
   • 1985, William H. Tench, Safety is no accident:

     Regulations have been made under the Civil Aviation Acts of 1949, 1980 and 1982 which empower Inspectors of Accidents to do these things.

2. (transitive) To give someone more confidence and/or strength to do something, often by enabling them to increase their control over their own life or situation.

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

   • 1992, Nick Logan, The Face, page 11-130:

     Musically, what originally attracted me to dance was its shamanist aspects, using natural magic to change people's neurological states and to psychologically empower them.

• (give permission to): allow, let, permit
• (give confidence to): inspire

• (give permission to): ban, bar, forbid, prohibit
• (give confidence to): disempower, dishearten, disspirit

• empowerment

• empowre