enter

Alternative forms

• entre (archaic, before circa 1700)

Etymology

From Middle English entren, from Old French entrer, from Latin intrō (“enter”, verb), from intrā (“inside”). Has been spelled as "enter" for several centuries even in the United Kingdom, although British English and the English of many Commonwealth Countries (e.g. Australia, Canada) retain the "re" ending for many words such as centre, fibre, spectre, theatre, calibre, sombre, lustre, and litre.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛntə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛntɚ/, [ˈɛɾ̃ɚ]
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): [ˈɪɾ̃ɚ]

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntə(r)
• Homophone: inner (pin-pen merger)
• Hyphenation: en‧ter

Verb

enter (third-person singular simple present enters, present participle entering, simple past and past participle entered)

1. (intransitive) To go or come into an enclosed or partially enclosed space.

   You should knock before you enter, unless you want to see me naked.

   • 1555, John Proctor, The historie of Wyates rebellion, with the order and maner of resisting the same, …, page 86:

     […] you can fynde in youre heartes to assaulte her with rebellion, or in any wise [ways] suffer any one eyvil motion to enter into your thoughtes against her?

   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), John 3:5:

     Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, OCLC 16832619:

     In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.

2. (transitive) To cause to go (into), or to be received (into); to put in; to insert; to cause to be admitted.

   to enter a knife into a piece of wood;  to enter a boy at college, a horse for a race, etc.

3. (figuratively) To go or come into (a state or profession).

   My twelve-year-old son will be entering his teens next year.  She had planned to enter the legal profession.

   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

     Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. …  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining".

4. (transitive) To type (something) into a computer; to input.

   Enter your user name and password.

5. (transitive) To record (something) in an account, ledger, etc.
   • 2003, A. Mukherjee and M. Hanif, Financial Accounting, →ISBN, pages 27:

     Each amount entered in the debit column of the journal is posted by entering it on the credit side/column of of an account in the ledger.

6. (intransitive, law) To become a party to an agreement, treaty, etc.
   • 2003 February 4, The President of the United States, “NOTIFICATION TO ENTER INTO A FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF SINGAPORE”, in U.S. Government Printing Office, retrieved 2013-9-9:

     I am pleased to notify the Congress of my intent to enter into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Government of Singapore.

7. (law, intransitive) To become effective; to come into effect.
   • 2005, United Nations, Dispositions Législatives Et Réglementaires Nationales Relatives À la Prévention Et À L'élimination Du Terrorisme International, →ISBN, page 215:

     This Act shall enter into force on 01 March 1998.

8. (law) To go into or upon, as lands, and take actual possession of them.
9. (transitive, law) To place in regular form before the court, usually in writing; to put upon record in proper from and order.

   to enter a writ, appearance, rule, or judgment

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)

10. to make report of (a vessel or its cargo) at the custom house; to submit a statement of (imported goods), with the original invoices, to the proper customs officer for estimating the duties. See entry.
11. (transitive, US, dated, historical) To file, or register with the land office, the required particulars concerning (a quantity of public land) in order to entitle a person to a right of preemption.
    • 1887, United States General Land Office, Annual Report of the Commissioner of General Land Office, US Government Printing Office, page 82:

      Under existing laws governing the qualifications of an alien to enter 160 acres or more of the public domain he is only required to file his declaration of intent to become a citizen.

12. to deposit for copyright the title or description of (a book, picture, map, etc.).

    entered according to act of Congress

13. (transitive, obsolete) To initiate; to introduce favourably.
    • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

      This sword but shown to Caesar, with this tidings, / Shall enter me with him.

Noun

Enter-key marked with green, Return-key with red

enter (plural enters)

1. (computing) Alternative spelling of Enter (“the computer key”)
2. (computing) Alternative spelling of Enter (“a stroke of the computer key”)

Anagrams

• entre, rente, terne, treen

Etymology

From Old Occitan, inherited from Latin integer, integrum. Compare Occitan entièr, French entier, Spanish entero. Doublet of íntegre, a later borrowing.

Adjective

enter (feminine entera, masculine plural enters, feminine plural enteres)

1. entire, whole, complete

   Synonym: sencer

Noun

enter m (plural enters)

1. whole number, integer

   Synonyms: nombre enter, nombre sencer

2. a complete lottery ticket (made up of ten dècims)

Further reading

• “enter” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈentːer/

Noun

enter

1. Enter (computer key)

Etymology

From a Vulgar Latin *imptāre, contraction of *imputō, imputāre (“I graft”) (unrelated to imputō (“I reckon, attribute”)), from inpotus (attested in Salic Law), from Ancient Greek ἔμφυτος (émphutos, “planted”). The Greek word may have actually reached Gaul through traders at the Mediterranean coastal colonies before the Roman conquest.

Verb

enter

1. (agriculture) to graft
2. to implant

Further reading

• “enter” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• entre, entré
• rente, renté
• terne

Alternative forms

• entar

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *enter (“between”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁enter (“between”). Cognates include Celtiberian entara (“between”), Old Irish eter (“between”) (Irish idir (“between, both”)), Latin inter (“between”), Sanskrit अन्तर् (antár, “between, within, into”), Oscan 𐌀𐌍𐌕𐌄𐌓 (anter, “between”), and Old High German untar (“between”).

Preposition

enter

1. between, among

References

• Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, published 2003, →ISBN, page 163.
• Ranko Matasović, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, published 2009, →ISBN, page 117.

Verb

enter

1. First-person singular present of entern.
2. Imperative singular of entern.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.tɛr/

Noun

enter m inan

1. (computing) Enter (key on a computer keyboard)