In a census year, the U.S. government attempts to enumerate every single citizen of the country—a task that, even in the modern era of technology, isn't truly possible. Medical tests often require the enumeration of bacteria, viruses, or other organisms to determine the progress of a disease or the effectiveness of a medication. Despite its numer- root, you don't have to use numbers when enumerating. For students of government and law, the "enumerated powers" are the specific responsibilities of the Congress, as listed in the U.S. Constitution; these are the only powers that Congress has, a fact that the Tenth Amendment makes even more clearly.
Let me enumerate my reasons for doing this.
I proceeded to enumerate the reasons why I would be justified in filing a lawsuit for negligence.
Recent Examples on the WebThese writers unravel their own stories, enumerate the costs and consequences of the act of narration, with an avid, unsparing eye for distortion and error.—Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 1 July 2024 And that seems to be the primary goal of the film’s middle portion, which abandons any semblance of a plot in order to enumerate the nonsensical rules of its world until the time comes for Rudger to reunite with Amanda in the hospital and affirm the meaningfulness of their friendship.—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 June 2024 By default, the firewall will deny resolutions to all domains except those enumerated in allow lists.—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 3 May 2024 So much of my existence, all of ours, could be easily enumerated.—Clare French, Hartford Courant, 16 Mar. 2024 See all Example Sentences for enumerate
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'enumerate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Latin enumeratus, past participle of enumerare, from e- + numerare to count, from numerus number
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