entrepreneurial
Word family
- entrepreneurnounB1
- entrepreneurshipnounB2
- entrepreneuriallyadverbC1
- enterprisenounB2
Synonym discussion
Sense: adjective/1
All three synonyms overlap with 'entrepreneurial', but each has a different focus. 'Enterprising' is the broadest — it describes anyone who shows energy and initiative in any area, not just business (an enterprising student might start a school club). 'Innovative' highlights the creation of new ideas or methods, whether in business, science, or the arts, without necessarily involving risk or profit. 'Venturesome' carries a stronger sense of risk-taking but is less common in everyday business writing and can sound old-fashioned. 'Entrepreneurial' uniquely combines initiative, innovation, risk, and the context of building a commercial venture. For example, a person can be enterprising without being entrepreneurial (organising a community clean-up), but someone described as entrepreneurial is almost always acting in a business or project-building setting.
Common collocations
Etymology
The word 'entrepreneurial' comes from the French noun 'entrepreneur', which originally meant a person who undertakes a task or project. 'Entrepreneur' itself was formed from the Old French verb 'entreprendre' (to undertake), a combination of 'entre-' (between) and 'prendre' (to take). The modern business sense — describing someone who starts and runs a company — became widely used in the 18th century, and the adjective 'entrepreneurial' appeared later to describe the qualities associated with such people.