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Eligible vs Enable - What's the difference?

eligible | enable |

As an adjective eligible

is suitable; meeting the conditions; worthy of being chosen; allowed to do something.

As a noun eligible

is one who is eligible.

As a verb enable is

to give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.

eligible

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Suitable; meeting the conditions; worthy of being chosen; allowed to do something.
  • Usage notes

    Used in the phrase (eligible bachelor) to mean “desirable male”, the corresponding term for a woman is nubile.

    Synonyms

    * qualified

    Antonyms

    * ineligible * unqualified

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who is eligible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2007, date=October 3, author=Diane Ravitch, title=Get Congress Out of the Classroom, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=Federal agencies report that only about 1 percent of eligible students take advantage of switching schools and fewer than 20 percent of eligibles receive extra tutoring.}}

    enable

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Verb

    (enabling) (enabl)
  • To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
  • * 1611 , King James Bible , "1 Tim. i. 12"
  • Who hath enabled me.
  • To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.
  • * 1711 , October 13, (Joseph Addison), (The Spectator) , number 195
  • Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • To allow a way out or excuse for an action.
  • Antonyms

    * disable

    Derived terms

    * enabler * enablement * re-enable * reenable

    Anagrams

    *