enable
/ɪˈneɪ.bəl/verb
enable is spelled E-N-A-B-L-E: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, enable means “To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in enable?
| Letters | 6: E-N-A-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is enable?
Enable appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce enable?
- US /ɪˈneɪ.bəl/
- Australia /ɪˈnæɪ.bəl/
- /əˈnæɪ.bəl/
Enable has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-enable.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with enable?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as enable from its last stressed vowel (/eɪbəl/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: baleen.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of enable
- enables present, singular, he/she/it
- enabling participle, present
- enabled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does enable mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
- 2
To affirm; to make firm and strong.
- 3
To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.
- 4
To yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.
April 16, 2018, Norimitsu Onishi and Selam Gebrekidan writing in The New York Times, ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption
- 5
To imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.
His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.
- 6
To put a circuit element into action by supplying a suitable input pulse.
- 7
To activate, to make operational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Enable in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | autoriser , permettre , activer |
| German | (jemanden) berechtigen, befähigen , ermöglichen , aktivieren, einschalten , anordnen |
| Portuguese | habilitar , possibilitar , ativar |
| Spanish | habilitar , posibilitar , activar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does enable come from?
From Middle English enablen, equivalent to en- + able.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).