An enterprise is a company or business, often a small one.
[business]
There are plenty of small industrial enterprises.
...the integration of farming enterprises.
Synonyms: firm, company, business, concern More Synonyms of enterprise
2. countable noun
An enterprise is something new, difficult, or important that you do or try to do.
...the first Director of such a novel enterprise.
Horse breeding is indeed a risky enterprise.
Synonyms: venture, operation, project, adventure More Synonyms of enterprise
3. uncountable noun
Enterprise is the activity of managing companies and businesses and starting new ones.
[business]
He is still involved in voluntary work promoting local enterprise.
...a national program of subsidies to private enterprise.
4. uncountable noun
Enterprise is the ability to think of new and effective things to do, together with an eagerness to do them.
[approval]
...the spirit of enterprise worthy of a free and industrious people.
...the group's lack of enterprise.
More Synonyms of enterprise
enterprise in British English
(ˈɛntəˌpraɪz)
noun
1.
a project or undertaking, esp one that requires boldness or effort
2.
participation in such projects
3.
readiness to embark on new ventures; boldness and energy
4.
a.
initiative in business
b.
(as modifier)
the enterprise culture
5.
a business unit; a company or firm
Derived forms
enterpriser (ˈenterˌpriser)
noun
Word origin
C15: from Old French entreprise (n), from entreprendre from entre- between (from Latin: inter-) + prendre to take, from Latin prehendere to grasp
enterprise in American English
(ˈɛntərˌpraɪz)
noun
1.
an undertaking; project
; specif.,
a.
a bold, difficult, dangerous, or important undertaking
b.
a business venture or company
2.
willingness to undertake new or risky projects; energy and initiative
3.
active participation in projects
Word origin
ME < OFr entreprise < fem. pp. of entreprendre, to undertake < entre- (L inter), in, between + prendre < L prehendere: see prehensile
COBUILD Collocations
enterprise
commercial enterprise
joint enterprise
medium enterprise
medium-sized enterprise
whole enterprise
Examples of 'enterprise' in a sentence
enterprise
It aims to provide long-term growth capital for innovative social enterprises.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Just 9 per cent of work was awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Companies putting together enterprise architecture initiatives should take some tips from their design team, say research firm Gartner.
Computing (2010)
Aside from her core fundraising consultancy business, the 44-year-old helps charities and social enterprises to plan for the long term.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
An engineer is anybody who has a higher education and works in an industrial enterprise.
Aganbegyan, Abel Inside Perestroika: The Future of the Soviet Economy (1990)
Few relationships are as critical to the business enterprise itself as the relationship to government.
Peter F. Drucker MANAGEMENT: task, responsibilities, practices (1974)
In the typical enterprise management people deal with these things.
Peter F. Drucker MANAGEMENT: task, responsibilities, practices (1974)
Local enterprise partners have also helped with inward investment.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Social enterprises can also apply for places and work alongside commercial counterparts.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
The university has launched a number of successful enterprise initiatives.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Yet profitability is not the purpose of but a limiting factor on business enterprise and business activity.
Peter F. Drucker MANAGEMENT: task, responsibilities, practices (1974)
The measurements available for the key areas of a business enterprise are still haphazard by and large.
Peter F. Drucker THE ESSENTIAL DRUCKER (2001)
Its teeming streets buzz with energy and enterprise.
The Sun (2012)
No one unit of the enterprise can be permitted to handle its own foreign currency exposures.
Peter F. Drucker THE ESSENTIAL DRUCKER (2001)
But are we teaching our young people the practical enterprise skills needed to compete?
The Sun (2011)
In an individual enterprise social ownership appeared to be no ownership at all.
Aganbegyan, Abel Inside Perestroika: The Future of the Soviet Economy (1990)
The pace of economic activity and the growth of a culture of enterprise did not produce dramatic social dislocation.
The Times Literary Supplement (2012)
Social enterprises are businesses that work to further a good cause and reinvest the bulk of profits to expand their work.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
It restricts the recruitment opportunities for British nationals in multinational enterprises.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
What do you think that free enterprise means for Smith?
Kishlansky, Mark A. (editor) Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 1: From the Beginningto 1715 (1995)
You've already proved you care about your project or enterprise.
Kiam, Victor Going For It!: How to Succeed As an Entrepreneur (1986)
He may not have been aware that Arm is already an important global enterprise.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Or is venture capital more interested in short-term profits than risky enterprises?
Chancellor, John Peril and Promise: A Commentary on America (1990)
The Cowley branch proposals have the support of both the city council and the local enterprise partnership.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
His next task was to turn around an ailing enterprise: the national team.
John Foot Calcio: A History of Italian Football (2006)
Was this not a vindication of American free enterprise?
Grenville, J. A. S. The Collins History of the World in the 20th Century (1994)
The new left-wing parties are coming to accept the need to leave some incentive for individuals to encourage effort and enterprise.
Redwood, John The Global Marketplace (1993)
Since then a large enterprise zone with industrial parks has been built, which has helped to revive its former glory.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
These are listed funds that give investors access to a portfolio of small UK enterprises.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
In other languages
enterprise
British English: enterprise NOUN
An enterprise is a company or business, often a small one.
There are plenty of small industrial enterprises.
American English: enterprise
Brazilian Portuguese: empreendimento
Chinese: 公司
European Spanish: empresa
French: entreprise
German: Unternehmen
Italian: impresa
Japanese: 企業
Korean: 기업체
European Portuguese: empreendimento
Latin American Spanish: empresa
All related terms of 'enterprise'
enterprise zone
An enterprise zone is an area, usually a depressed or inner-city area, where the government offers incentives in order to attract new businesses.
free enterprise
Free enterprise is an economic system in which businesses compete for profit without much government control.
Forest Enterprise
a British government department responsible for maintaining and expanding forests
joint enterprise
An enterprise is something new, difficult , or important that you do or try to do.
medium enterprise
An enterprise is a company or business, often a small one.
private enterprise
Private enterprise is industry and business which is owned by individual people or commercial companies , and not by the government or an official organization.
public enterprise
economic activity by governmental organizations
social enterprise
a business organization that works to benefit society as a whole
whole enterprise
An enterprise is something new, difficult , or important that you do or try to do.
commercial enterprise
An enterprise is a company or business, often a small one.
spirit of enterprise
the motivation to set up and succeed in business or commerce
free-enterprise economy
an economy characterized by free enterprise
medium-sized enterprise
An enterprise is a company or business, often a small one.
Enterprise Allowance Scheme
(formerly in Britain ) a scheme to provide a weekly allowance to an unemployed person who wishes to set up a business and is willing to invest a specified amount in it during its first year
Enterprise Investment Scheme
(in Britain) a scheme to provide tax relief on investments in certain small companies: came into operation in 1994, when it replaced the Business Expansion Scheme
National Enterprise Board
a public corporation established in 1975 to help the economy of the UK. In 1981 it merged with the National Research and Development Council to form the British Technology Group
Training and Enterprise Council
(formerly) one of the local bodies established in England and Wales in the early 1990s to administer publicly-funded training-for-work programmes , esp for school leavers