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Embolden vs Empower - What's the difference?

embolden | empower |

In transitive terms the difference between embolden and empower

is that embolden is to encourage, inspire, or motivate while empower is to give someone more confidence and/or strength to do something, often by enabling them to increase their control over their own life or situation.

embolden

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To render (someone) bolder or more courageous.
  • To encourage, inspire, or motivate.
  • (typography) To format text in boldface.
  • * 2004 : Jason Whittaker, The Cyberspace Handbook , p216
  • The tags

    indicate paragraphs breaks, and we have included some basic text formatting: for emphasis (typically italics), for underline and to embolden text.

    Synonyms

    * (typography) boldface

    References

    empower

    English

    Alternative forms

    * empowre (archaic) * impower (archaic) * impowre (obsolete)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To give permission, power, or the legal right to do something.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1985, author=William H. Tench, title=Safety is no accident
  • , passage=Regulations have been made under the Civil Aviation Acts of 1949, 1980 and 1982 which empower Inspectors of Accidents to do these things.}}
  • To give someone more confidence and/or strength to do something, often by enabling them to increase their control over their own life or situation.
  • It's not enough to give women and minorities equal rights on paper; they need to be empowered to be able to make use of these rights.
    John found that starting up his own business empowered him greatly in social situations.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1992, author=Nick Logan, title=The Face, page=11-130
  • , passage=Musically, what originally attracted me to dance was its shamanist aspects, using natural magic to change people's neurological states and to psychologically empower them.}}

    Synonyms

    * (give permission to) allow, let, permit * (give confidence to) inspire

    Antonyms

    * (give permission to) ban, bar, forbid, prohibit * (give confidence to) disempower, dishearten, disspirit

    Derived terms

    * empowerment