(enterprises)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
An enterprise is a company or business, often a small one. (BUSINESS)
There are plenty of small industrial enterprises.
N-COUNT: usu with supp, oft adj N
2.
An enterprise is something new, difficult, or important that you do or try to do.
Horse breeding is indeed a risky enterprise.
= venture
N-COUNT: usu supp N
3.
Enterprise is the activity of managing companies and businesses and starting new ones. (BUSINESS)
He is still involved in voluntary work promoting local enterprise.
...a national program of subsidies to private enterprise.
N-UNCOUNT: usu supp N
4.
Enterprise is the ability to think of new and effective things to do, together with an eagerness to do them.
...the spirit of enterprise worthy of a free and industrious people.
N-UNCOUNT [approval]