enabling

American  

[en-ey-bling] / ɛnˈeɪ blɪŋ /

adjective

Law.

1. conferring additional legal powers or capacities, especially by removing a barrier to action, suspending required permission, or relaxing oversight: enabling power.

   an enabling act;

   enabling power.

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Etymology

Origin of enabling

First recorded in 1670–80; enable + -ing ²

Explanation

Enabling is a term used for laws that confer legal powers to someone or something. An enabling act makes it possible for authorities to take action. One meaning of the verb enable is "to provide with legal powers," so the adjective formed by adding -ing gets used to describe legislation that has that empowering effect. When new American states were formed out of frontier territories, they could either organize statehood themselves, or they could be admitted into the Union through an "enabling act" of Congress.

Example Sentences

Lacking leads in the Virginia bank robbery, a police detective turned to what one judge in the case called a “groundbreaking investigative tool ... enabling the relentless collection of eerily precise location data.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2026

Anthropic launched Claude Design, an AI tool enabling users to create visual designs, slides, and more with its Claude model.

From Barron's • Apr. 17, 2026

That, they hope, will allow the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, enabling oil and other commodities to again flow freely through the waterway.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

He added that the deal has brought "certainty" to the UK SMR programme after signing an early works agreement last year enabling the launch of site work in Czechia.

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

Although the version seemed unlikely to them, they did not have any information enabling them to replace it with the true one.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Related Words

• permissive