enterprise

plural enterprises · alternative obsolete enterprize · alternative obsolete entreprise

1. countableuncountableA company, business, organization, or other purposeful endeavor.

   A micro-enterprise is defined as a company or business having 5 or fewer employees and a low seed capital.

   1 more example

   The government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are a group of financial services corporations which have been created by the United States Congress.

2. countableuncountableAn undertaking, venture, or project, especially a daring and courageous one.

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

   Synonyms: pursuit, undertaking, emprise, activity, doings, endeavor, pursuance, pursuit

3. uncountableA willingness to undertake new or risky projects; energy and initiative.

   He has shown great enterprise throughout his early career.

   1 more example

   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.

   1954, Philip Larkin, Continuing to Live

   Synonyms: initiative

4. uncountableActive participation in projects.

present singular third person enterprises · participle present enterprising · participle past enterprised · past enterprised · alternative obsolete enterprize · alternative obsolete entreprise

1. intransitiveTo undertake an enterprise, or something hazardous or difficult.

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

   1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]

2. transitiveTo undertake; to begin and attempt to perform; to venture upon.

   c. 1680, Thomas Otway, letter to Elizabeth Barry What would I not renounce or enterprise for you!

   1 more example

   The business must be enterprised this night.

   1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada

3. obsoletetransitiveTo put up or house; to entertain.

   Him at the threshold met, and well did enterprize.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 14

1. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A city in Coffee County, Alabama.
   2. An unincorporated community in Amador County, California.
   3. An unincorporated community in Lake County, California.
   4. An unincorporated community in Volusia County, Florida.
   5. An unincorporated community in Spencer County, Indiana.
   6. A minor city in Dickinson County, Kansas.
   7. A town in Clarke County, Mississippi.
   8. An unincorporated community in Union County, Mississippi.
   9. An unincorporated community in Linn County, Missouri.
   10. An unincorporated community in Shelby County, Missouri.
   11. An unincorporated town and census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada.
   12. An unincorporated community in Hocking County, Ohio.
   13. An unincorporated community in Preble County, Ohio.
   14. A city, the county seat of Wallowa County, Oregon.
   15. A city in Washington County, Utah.
   16. A census-designated place in Morgan County, Utah.
   17. An unincorporated community in Wirt County, West Virginia.
   18. A town and unincorporated community in Oneida County, Wisconsin.
2. A hamlet in the South Slave Region, Northwest Territories, Canada.
3. A hamlet in Stone Mills, Ontario, Canada.
4. A rural municipality of Saskatchewan, Canada.
5. A village in the Demerara-Mahaica region, Guyana.