Empowered

How to spell empowered

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce empowered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does empowered mean?

1. verbGave someone the authority, confidence, or means to do something or take control.
2. adjectiveFeeling confident, in control, and able to act on one's own decisions.

Empowered in a sentence

• verb

  The new policy empowered staff to approve refunds without a manager.

• adjective

  She felt empowered to make her own financial decisions after the course.

• verb

  The workshop empowered her to negotiate a better salary.

• adjective

  An empowered team takes ownership of its own results.

Where does empowered come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of 'empower', a word built entirely within English by attaching the prefix 'em-' (a form of 'en-', meaning 'to put into' or 'to make') to the noun 'power'. The 'power' element traces back through the Old French 'poeir' or 'povoir' to the Latin 'posse', which literally meant 'to be able'; the same Latin source gives us 'possible' and 'potent'. 'Empower' was coined in the seventeenth century, around the 1650s, originally in the legal sense of granting someone the authority or license to act. Over time its meaning softened from formal authorisation toward the modern idea of giving a person confidence, control, or the means to take charge of their own life. The spelling 'em-' rather than 'en-' simply reflects the old habit of changing 'n' to 'm' before the lip sound 'p', which is the same reason we write 'embark' and 'employ'.

How the word is built

• em- (variant of en-: to put into or make)
• power (root, from Latin posse: to be able)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)