facilitate

verb

fuh-SIL-i-tayt/fəˈsɪlɪteɪt/

Formsfacilitates, facilitating, facilitated

3 meanings of facilitate

Practice

1
verbtransitive
To make a task or process easier or less difficult to carry out.
Clear signage facilitates movement through a crowded airport.
A shared language can facilitate trade between distant nations.
Similarease
Oppositehinder, impede
Note
The core sense, borrowed from French faciliter and traced back ultimately to Latin facilis. Its object is the task or process that becomes easier, not the person who is helped: a design facilitates maintenance, and a flat landscape facilitates views. Its opposites are hinder and impede. Its plainer near-synonym is ease.
2
verbtransitive
To help bring something about or make it more likely to happen.
Diplomatic talks facilitated a ceasefire after months of fighting.
Mentors facilitate the growth of younger employees.
Similarpromote, foster, enable, encourage, further
Oppositehinder, impede
Note
Here the verb shifts from smoothing a task, as in the "make easier" meaning, to helping an outcome happen without claiming to cause it. Henry Fielding already uses it this way in Tom Jones (1749). That modesty can matter: in 2025 reporting by Alan Feuer and Mattathias Schwartz, a judge's order to "facilitate" a deportee's return sits in scare quotes, since helping is not the same as delivering. Its opposites are hinder and impede.
3
verbtransitive
To guide a meeting or seminar, helping the group stay on track and reach its goals.
An experienced coach facilitated the strategy session.
Trained volunteers facilitate the weekly support meetings.
Similarlead, moderate, run, chair, guide

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Origin

This is an English form of French faciliter ("facilitate"), made with the verb-forming suffix -ate, and coming ultimately from Latin facilis.