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Enterprises vs Business - What's the difference?

enterprises | business |

As a verb enterprises

is (enterprise).

As a noun business is

(countable) a specific commercial enterprise or establishment.

As an adjective business is

of, to, pertaining to or utilized for purposes of conducting trade, commerce, governance, advocacy or other professional purposes.

enterprises

English

Verb

(head)
  • (enterprise)
  • Anagrams

    *

    enterprise

    Alternative forms

    * enterprize (chiefly archaic) * entreprise (chiefly archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A company, business, organization, or other purposeful endeavor.
  • The (GSEs) are a group of financial services corporations which have been created by the United States Congress.
    A micro-enterprise is defined as a business having 5 or fewer employees and a low seed capital.
  • An undertaking or project, especially a daring and courageous one.
  • Biosphere 2 was a scientific enterprise aimed at the exploration of the complex web of interactions within life systems.
  • A willingness to undertake new or risky projects; energy and initiative.
  • He has shown great enterprise throughout his early career.
  • an active participation in projects
  • Synonyms

    * initiative

    Derived terms

    * enterprising * commercial enterprise * scientific enterprise

    Verb

    (enterpris)
  • To undertake an enterprise, or something hazardous or difficult.
  • (Alexander Pope)
  • To undertake; to begin and attempt to perform; to venture upon.
  • * Dryden
  • The business must be enterprised this night.
  • * T. Otway
  • What would I not renounce or enterprise for you!
  • To treat with hospitality; to entertain.
  • * Spenser
  • Him at the threshold met, and well did enterprise .
    (Webster 1913)

    business

    English

    Noun

  • (countable) A specific commercial enterprise or establishment.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.}}
  • (countable) A person's occupation, work, or trade.
  • (uncountable) Commercial, industrial, or professional activity.
  • (uncountable) The volume or amount of commercial trade.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business , but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.}}
  • (uncountable) One's dealings; patronage.
  • (uncountable) Private commercial interests taken collectively.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Schumpeter
  • , title= Cronies and capitols , passage=Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.}}
  • (uncountable) The management of commercial enterprises, or the study of such management.
  • (countable) A particular situation or activity.
  • (countable) An objective or a matter needing to be dealt with.
  • *
  • (uncountable) Something involving one personally.
  • (uncountable, parliamentary procedure) Matters that come before a body for deliberation or action.
  • (travel, uncountable) Business class, the class of seating provided by airlines between first class and coach.
  • * {{quote-book, 1992, James Wallace and Jim Erickson, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, page=154 citation
  • , passage=Gates, who always flew business or coach, didn't particularly like the high air fares Nishi was charging to Microsoft,
  • (acting) Action carried out with a prop or piece of clothing, usually away from the focus of the scene.
  • * {{quote-book, 1983, Peter Thomson, Shakespeare's Theatre, page=155 citation
  • , passage= The business with the hat is a fine example of the difficulty of distinguishing between 'natural' and 'formal' acting.}}
  • (countable, rare) The collective noun for a group of ferrets.
  • * {{quote-book, 2004, , The Jaguar Knights: A Chronicle of the King's Blades, page=252 citation
  • , passage=I'm sure his goons will go through the ship like a business of ferrets, and they'll want to look in our baggage. }}
  • (uncountable, slang, British) Something very good; top quality. (possibly from "the bee's knees")
  • (slang, uncountable) Excrement, particularly that of a non-human animal.
  • Derived terms

    * agribusiness * big business * business as usual * business analyst * business architect * business before pleasure * business card * business class * business day * business deal * business economics * business end * business English * business ethics * business failure * business girl * business intelligence * business lunch * business model * business name * business plan * business practice * business record * business risk * business trip * business trust * business unit * business venture * businesslike * businessman * businessperson * businesswoman * business-to-business * do business * e-business * family business * funny business * get down to business * give someone the business * line of business * mean business * mind one's own business * monkey business * order of business * out of business * personal business * place of business * show business * small business * take care of business * unfinished business * we appreciate your business

    Adjective

  • Of, to, pertaining to or utilized for purposes of conducting trade, commerce, governance, advocacy or other professional purposes.
  • * 1897 , Reform Club (New York, N.Y.) Sound Currency Committee, Sound currency , Volumes 4-5, page cclii,
  • They are solely business' instruments. Every man's relation to them is purely a '''business''' relation. His use of them is purely a ' business use.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=10 citation , passage=With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.}}
  • * 1996 , Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, American Law Reports: Annotations and Cases , Volume 35, page 432,
  • the fact that the injured party came to the insured premises for solely business purposes precluded any reliance on the non-business pursuits exception (§ 1 1 2[b]).
  • * 2003 , Marvin Snider, Compatibility Breeds Success: How to Manage Your Relationship with Your Business Partner , page 298,
  • Both of these partnerships have to cope with these dual issues in a more complicated way than is the case in solely business partnerships.
  • Professional, businesslike, having concern for good business practice.
  • * 1889 , The Clothier and furnisher , Volume 19, page 38,
  • He is thoroughly business , but has the happy faculty of transacting it in a genial and courteous manner.
  • * 1909 , La Salle Extension University, Business Administration: Business Practice , page 77,
  • and the transaction carried through in a thoroughly business manner.
  • * 1927 , Making of America Project, (w, Harper's Magazine) , Volume 154, page 502,
  • Sometimes this very subtle contrast becomes only too visible, as when in wartime Jewish business men were almost lynched because they were thoroughly business men and worked for profit.
  • * 2009 , (Frank Channing Haddock), Business Power: Supreme Business Laws and Maxims that Win Wealth , page 231,
  • The moral is evident: do not invest in schemes promising enormous and quick returns unless you have investigated them in a thoroughly business manner.
  • Supporting business, conducive to the conduct of business.
  • * 1867 , (Edmund Hodgson Yates) (editor), Amiens'', in ''Tinsley's Magazine , page 430,
  • Amiens is a thoroughly business town, the business being chiefly with the flax-works.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}

    See also

    * *