Meaning & use
empowerment
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Meanings
noununcountable
The process of becoming stronger and more confident, and gaining control over your own choices and life.
Grammar: Uncountable, so no plural or a: empowerment grows with education.
Patterns
- the empowerment of someone
- empowerment through something
Education is a key route to women's empowerment.
The program focuses on the empowerment of young people.
She described learning to code as a moment of real empowerment.
noununcountableformal
The act of giving someone official power or authority to do something.
Grammar: Often formal; followed by to do something or of someone.
Patterns
- empowerment of someone to do something
The law allows the empowerment of local councils to set their own rules.
Managers favored the empowerment of staff to resolve complaints.
Employee empowerment cut the time spent waiting for approval.
Common combinations
- women's empowerment
- The charity works on women's empowerment in rural areas.
- economic empowerment
- Small loans can support economic empowerment.
- sense of empowerment
- Finishing the marathon gave him a sense of empowerment.
- employee empowerment
- Employee empowerment lets staff solve problems quickly.
- promote empowerment
- Schools can promote empowerment by listening to students.
Synonyms and how they differ
- autonomy
- Autonomy means independence in making decisions, whereas empowerment stresses the process of gaining it.
- self-confidence
- Self-confidence is a feeling inside a person, while empowerment also involves real control and resources.
- authorization
- Authorization is a formal permission to act, with none of the personal growth that empowerment suggests.
- liberation
- Liberation implies being freed from oppression and is stronger and more dramatic than empowerment.
Opposites
Word family
- empower verb
- to give someone power or confidence
- empowered adjective
- having confidence and control
- empowering adjective
- giving people confidence and power
- disempower verb
- to take away power or confidence
Commonly confused: empowerment or enforcement?
empowerment vs enforcement
Enforcement means making people obey a rule, but empowerment means giving people power or confidence.
Practice
The workshop aims at the ___ of teenagers, helping them take control of their own plans.
Choose one answer.
Empowerment fits because it means helping people gain control and confidence. Enforcement and employment look similar but change the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “empowerment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.