encouraged

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of encourage.

   The mentor encouraged each student to pursue their own line of questions.

   Residents were encouraged to report any flooding to the city as soon as possible.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. As a simple past it stands alone (the mentor encouraged each student). As a past participle it follows have in the perfect or be in the passive. Because encourage is transitive in each of its uses, the passive comes easily, often with a to-infinitive: residents were encouraged to report flooding. Where that passive ends, the adjective of feeling begins.

2. 2
   adjective

   Made to feel hopeful or more confident through support or encouragement.

   He seemed genuinely encouraged by the steady progress his patients were making.

   Feeling encouraged after the interview, she began planning her next career move.

   Similarbuoyed, hopeful, optimistic

   Oppositediscouraged, disheartened, demoralized, dejected

   Note

   A participle that has settled into a true adjective, and the test is grading: it takes more and most, as when Ryan Rogers, in Media Feedback (2021), writes that participants "felt more encouraged, more competent." After feel, seem or become it names a state of mind. Followed by were and a to-infinitive (were more encouraged to participate), it shades back toward the passive verb.

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