encouraging

/ɛnˈkʌrɪdʒɪŋ/

/ɛnˈkʌrədʒɪŋ/

Something that's encouraging makes you feel better — more hopeful or confidant. A good theater director knows how to give her actors encouraging advice before they go on stage.

When someone you know needs extra help or support, a friendly letter or phone call can be encouraging, and if you're being treated for an illness, an encouraging word from your doctor will bring you a lot of relief. Encouraging test results are good ones — they deliver good news. The verb encourage is at the heart of encouraging, from the Old French encoragier, "make strong or hearten."

Definitions of encouraging

1. adjective

   giving courage or confidence or hope
   “encouraging advances in medical research”

   synonyms:

   reassuring

   restoring confidence and relieving anxiety

   exhortative, exhortatory, hortative, hortatory

   giving strong encouragement

   heartening, inspiriting, uplifting

   cheerfully encouraging

   promotive

   tending to further or encourage

   rallying

   rousing or recalling to unity and renewed effort

   helpful

   providing assistance or serving a useful function

   hopeful

   having or manifesting hope

   antonyms:

   discouraging

   depriving of confidence or hope or enthusiasm and hence often deterring action

   daunting, intimidating

   discouraging through fear

   demoralising, demoralizing, disheartening, dispiriting

   destructive of morale and self-reliance

   frustrating

   discouraging by hindering

   unencouraging

   not encouraging

   unhelpful

   providing no assistance

   hopeless

   without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success

   dissuasive

   deterring from action
2. adjective

   furnishing support and encouragement
   synonyms: supporting

   supportive

   furnishing support or assistance