MEANING
The process through which people gain greater ability, freedom, or authority to shape their own lives.
Use it for
analyzing increased control over decisions; distinguishing formal participation from meaningful influence; examining whether a policy expands people’s practical choicesDistinguishes effective capacity to influence one’s circumstances from participation without meaningful decision-making power. Academic functions: Theory / Conceptual Language, Evaluation.
Words that belong together
- community empowerment
- the empowerment of workers
- political empowerment
On the page
The evaluation distinguishes attendance at consultations from genuine empowerment in decision-making.
The authors ask whether the policy expands practical choices rather than merely reporting higher confidence.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- empowerment
Usage notes
Normally uncountable. Empowerment of + person or group. Do not routinely invent a plural for the general process. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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