Definition of "encouragement" []

• The act of encouraging. (noun)
• The state of being encouraged. (noun)
• One that encourages. (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.

• "K J, Your encouragement is also greatly appreciated and I Thank You for calling me a writer!"
• "Essential to this encouragement is a better understanding of the interaction between the market and non-market sectors of our economy."
• "Kalliope had been kept up by her native dignity and resolution, and had at first gently, then firmly, declined the arguments, persuasions, promises, and final reproaches with which they beset her -- even threatening to disclose what they called encouragement, and assuring her that she need not reckon on"