Meaning & use
empower
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitiveformal
To give someone the official power or right to do something.
Grammar: Takes an object and to: the law empowers police to enter.
Patterns
- empower someone to do something
The new law empowers inspectors to close unsafe buildings.
The board empowered the director to sign the contract.
Voters empowered the council to raise funds.
verbtransitive
To make someone stronger and more confident in controlling their own life or work.
Grammar: Takes a person or group as object, and often appears in the passive: women were empowered.
Patterns
- empower someone
- empower someone to do something
- feel empowered
The program empowers young people to start businesses.
Learning to read empowered her to apply for better jobs.
Good managers empower their teams instead of controlling them.
Word forms
| third person singular | empowers |
|---|---|
| past tense | empowered |
| past participle | empowered |
| -ing form | empowering |
Common combinations
- empower women
- The charity works to empower women through education.
- empower employees
- Companies empower employees by trusting their ideas.
- feel empowered
- She felt empowered after speaking up.
- empower communities
- Local projects empower communities to solve problems.
- legally empowered
- Officers are legally empowered to make arrests.
Synonyms and how they differ
- authorize
- Authorize means to give formal permission, whereas empower also covers building confidence and ability.
- enable
- Enable means to make something possible and does not imply growing in strength or control.
- strengthen
- Strengthen is general and need not involve authority or independence.
- entitle
- Entitle gives someone a right, often by rules, and is narrower than empower.
Opposites
Word family
- empowerment noun
- the process of gaining control and confidence
- empowered adjective
- having power or confidence
- empowering adjective
- giving strength and confidence
- disempower verb
- to take power or confidence away
- power noun
- the base word, meaning ability or control
Commonly confused: empower or impower?
empower vs impower
Impower is an old variant spelling that is not used now; the standard spelling is empower.
Practice
The training course aims to ______ patients to manage their own health.
Choose one answer.
Empower someone to do something means to give them the ability and confidence to act. Employ, embargo and embarrass sound similar but have unrelated meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “empower”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.