| / English Dictionary |
ENTERPRISE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A purposeful or industrious undertaking (especially one that requires effort or boldness)
Example:
he had doubts about the whole enterprise
Synonyms:
endeavor; endeavour; enterprise
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("enterprise" is a kind of...):
labor; project; task; undertaking (any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "enterprise"):
fraudulent scheme; illegitimate enterprise; racket (an illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit)
forlorn hope (a hopeless or desperate enterprise)
business activity; commercial activity (activity undertaken as part of a commercial enterprise)
Derivation:
enterpriser (someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Readiness to embark on bold new ventures
Synonyms:
enterprise; enterprisingness; go-ahead; initiative
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("enterprise" is a kind of...):
drive (the trait of being highly motivated)
Derivation:
enterpriser (someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An organization created for business ventures
Example:
a growing enterprise must have a bold leader
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("enterprise" is a kind of...):
organisation; organization (a group of people who work together)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "enterprise"):
giant (an unusually large enterprise)
collective (members of a cooperative enterprise)
business; business concern; business organisation; business organization; concern (a commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it)
commercial enterprise (an enterprise connected with commerce)
Derivation:
enterpriser (someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it)
Context examples:
A business enterprise entered into for profit which is owned by more than one person, each of whom is a "partner."
(Partnership, NCI Thesaurus)
It seems strange to me that all round me do not burn to enlist under the same banner,—to join in the same enterprise.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
An accident taking place on the site of a commercial enterprise.
(Industrial Accident, NCI Thesaurus)
The people or companies engaged in a particular kind of commercial enterprise; the organized action of making of goods and services for sale.
(Industry, NCI Thesaurus)
A person who acts as a channel for communication with a commercial enterprise which produces substances intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.
(Drug Company Contact, NCI Thesaurus)
On November 4, Hungarian daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet revealed a deal whereby, on October 29, Hungarian state-owned enterprise HDT Védelmi Ipari Kft. (HDT Limited) acquired Austrian mortar and shell manufacturer Hirtenberger Defence Group.
(Hungarian state-owned enterprise acquires Hirtenberger Defence Group, Wikinews)
Fashion and speech and manners may change, but the spirit of enterprise within that square mile or two of land must not change, for when it withers all that has grown from it must wither also.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
With respect to the pecuniary assistance enabling us to launch our frail canoe on the ocean of enterprise, I have reconsidered that important business-point; and would beg to propose my notes of hand—drawn, it is needless to stipulate, on stamps of the amounts respectively required by the various Acts of Parliament applying to such securities—at eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty months.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I had now fastened all the hooks, and, taking the knot in my hand, began to pull; but not a ship would stir, for they were all too fast held by their anchors, so that the boldest part of my enterprise remained.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Under ordinary circumstances such a stench would have brought our enterprise to an end; but this was no ordinary case, and the high and terrible purpose in which we were involved gave us a strength which rose above merely physical considerations.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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