☼ Concept Map

''enterprise'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904120411-00-⌔

enterprise - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

enterprise (countable and uncountable, plural enterprises)

  • A company, business, organization, or other purposeful endeavor.
    • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: enterprise
    • ✤ The government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are a group of financial services corporations which have been created by the United States Congress.
    • ✤ A micro-enterprise is defined as a company or business having 5 or fewer employees and a low seed capital.
  • An undertaking, venture, or project, especially a daring and courageous one.
    • ✤ Synonyms: pursuit, undertaking, (formal) emprise; see also Thesaurus: activity
    • ✤ Biosphere 2 was a scientific enterprise aimed at the exploration of the complex web of interactions within life systems.
  • (uncountable) A willingness to undertake new or risky projects; energy and initiative.
    • ✤ Synonym: initiative
    • ✤ He has shown great enterprise throughout his early career.
    • ✤ This loss of interest, hair, and enterprise —/Ah, if the game were poker, yes,/You might discard them, draw a full house!/But it’s chess.1
  • (uncountable) Active participation in projects.

Verb

enterprise (third-person singular simple present enterprises, present participle enterprising, simple past and past participle enterprised)

  • (intransitive) To undertake an enterprise, or something hazardous or difficult.
    • ✤ Charles Mordaunt Earl of Peterborow […], with only 280 horse and 950 foot, enterprised and accomplished the Conquest of Valentia2
  • (transitive) To undertake; to begin and attempt to perform; to venture upon.
    • ✤ The business must be enterprised this night.3
    • ✤ What would I not renounce or enterprise for you!4
  • (obsolete, transitive) To put up or house; to entertain.
    • ✤ Him at the threshold met, and well did enterprize.5

Etymology

From Old French via Middle English and Middle French entreprise, feminine past participle of entreprendre (“to undertake”), from entre (“in between”) + prendre (“to take”), from Latin inter + prehendō, see prehensile.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɛntəˌpɹaɪz/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA: /ˈɛntɚˌpɹaɪz/
    • Audio (California): 🔊
  • (Australia) IPA: /ˈen.təˌpɹɑez/
  • (New Zealand) IPA: [ˈen.təˌpɹɑe̯z]
  • Hyphenation: en‧ter‧prise

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

  1. 1954, Philip Larkin, Continuing to Live: ↩

  2. 1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]: ↩

  3. 1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada: ↩

  4. c. 1680, Thomas Otway, letter to Elizabeth Barry ↩

  5. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14: ↩