different between qualify vs enable

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kw?l.?.fa?/, enPR: kw?l??-f?
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kw?l.?.fa?/, enPR: kw?l??-f?
• Hyphenation: qual?i?fy

Verb

qualify (third-person singular simple present qualifies, present participle qualifying, simple past and past participle qualified)

1. To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
2. To make someone, or to become competent or eligible for some position or task.
3. To certify or license someone for something.
4. To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.
   • 1598, Shakespeare, Sonnet 109

     O! never say that I was false of heart,

     Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify

5. (now rare) To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:

     he balmes and herbes thereto applyde, / And euermore with mighty spels them charmd, / That in short space he has them qualifyde, / And him restor'd to health, that would haue algates dyde.

6. To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage.
7. To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.
8. (juggling) To throw and catch each object at least twice.

Antonyms

• unqualify

Related terms

• disqualify
• qualification
• qualifier

Translations

Noun

qualify

1. (juggling) An instance of throwing and catching each prop at least twice.

English

Etymology

From Middle English enablen, equivalent to en- +? able.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??ne?b?l/
• Rhymes: -e?b?l

Verb

enable (third-person singular simple present enables, present participle enabling, simple past and past participle enabled)

1. To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
   • 1611, King James Bible, "1 Tim. i. 12"

     And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

   Synonyms: empower, endow

2. To affirm; to make firm and strong.
3. To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.

   Synonyms: let, permit, authorize

4. To yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.

   Synonym: allow

   • 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.

   • April 16, 2018, Norimitsu Onishi and Selam Gebrekidan writing in The New York Times, ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption
   • 2009, Meribeth A. Dayme, Dynamics of the Singing Voice, Springer Science & Business Media, p. 174:

     Trainers of modern athletes monitor performance by using high tech equipment and biometric bodysuits with embedded sensors to enable detailed analysis of movement, balance, efficiency for athletic performance.

5. To imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.

6. (electronics) To put a circuit element into action by supplying a suitable input pulse.
7. (chiefly electronics, computing) To activate, to make operational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).

   Synonyms: activate, turn on

   Antonym: disable

Derived terms

• enabler
• enablement
• re-enable
• reenable

Translations

Further reading

• enable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• enable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• enable at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• baleen