Enterprise

How to spell enterprise

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce enterprise

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does enterprise mean?

1. nounA business or commercial venture, especially one that is newly set up or run with effort and risk.
2. nounBoldness, energy, and willingness to take on difficult or risky undertakings.

Enterprise in a sentence

• The family ran a small catering enterprise from their home kitchen.

• She showed real enterprise by reorganising the whole filing system on her own.

• Government grants are available to help fund a new enterprise.

• The manager praised his enterprise in finding new clients without being asked.

Where does enterprise come from?

Language of origin: French

Enterprise came into English in the 1400s from the Old French entreprise, which was the feminine past participle of entreprendre, meaning 'to undertake' or 'to take in hand'. That verb was built from entre-, meaning 'between' or 'among' (from Latin inter), and prendre, meaning 'to take' (from Latin prehendere, 'to seize or grasp'). The literal idea was of a task seized or taken up, and from there it grew to mean both a bold undertaking and the daring spirit needed to attempt one, before settling on its modern commercial sense of a business venture. The same prehendere root that gives the '-prise' ending also lurks in 'comprise', 'apprehend', and 'surprise', which is why writers sometimes wrongly finish the word with a '-prize' spelling. Remembering that it ends like 'surprise', not 'prize', keeps the spelling on track.

How the word is built

• enter- (from entre: between, among)
• -prise (from prendre: to take, so literally 'something taken in hand, undertaken')