enterprise

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enterprise

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• enterprize (chiefly archaic)
• entreprise (chiefly archaic)

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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛntəˌpɹaɪz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛntɚˌpɹaɪz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: en‧ter‧prise

enterprise (countable and uncountable, plural enterprises)

2. 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.

4. An undertaking, venture, or project, especially a daring and courageous one.

   Synonyms: pursuit, undertaking; see also Thesaurus:activity

   Biosphere 2 was a scientific enterprise aimed at the exploration of the complex web of interactions within life systems.

6. (uncountable) A willingness to undertake new or risky projects; energy and initiative.

   Synonym: initiative

   He has shown great enterprise throughout his early career.

   • 1954, Philip Larkin, Continuing to Live:

     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.

8. (uncountable) Active participation in projects. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

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

1. (intransitive) To undertake an enterprise, or something hazardous or difficult.
   • 1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]:

     Charles Mordaunt Earl of Peterborow […] , with only 280 horse and 950 foot , enterprised and accomplished the Conquest of Valentia

2. (transitive) To undertake; to begin and attempt to perform; to venture upon.
   • 1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada:

     The business must be enterprised this night.

   • c. 1680, Thomas Otway, letter to Elizabeth Barry

     What would I not renounce or enterprise for you!

3. (obsolete, transitive) To put up or house; to entertain.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14:

     Him at the threshold met, and well did enterprize.

• “enterprise”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• enterprise in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “enterprise”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• entreprise