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Definition of "private enterprise" [private enterprise]

  • Business activities unregulated by state ownership or control; privately owned business. (noun)
  • A privately owned business enterprise, especially one operating under a system of free enterprise or laissez-faire capitalism. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "private enterprise" in a sentence
  • "When private enterprise invests many thousands of pounds in the building of jetties and tram-lines to facilitate the shipment of fruit, evidence in support of these statements is unnecessary."
  • "Holland’s employer, the Electric Boat Company in New London, Connecticut, was a private enterprise and the navies of the world soon beat a path to its door."
  • "And from this assumption, it’s not much of a leap to assume that any government intrusion into the magical workings of the market-whether through taxation, regulation, lawsuits, tariffs, labor protections, or spending on entitlements-necessarily undermines private enterprise and inhibits economic growth."