Encouragement1. (n.) The act of encouraging; incitement to action or to practice; as, the encouragement of youth in generosity.
2. (n.) That which serves to incite, support, promote, or advance, as favor, countenance, reward, etc.; incentive; increase of confidence; as, the fine arts find little encouragement among a rude people.
Thesaurus Entries
abetment, advocacy, aegis, aid, aid and comfort, animating, animation, assurance, auspices, backing, bait, boost, bribe, care, carrot, championship, charity, cheering, comfort, condolence, consolation, countenance, easement, emboldening, exhortation, exhorting, favor, fillip, fosterage, goading, goodwill, guidance, heartening, help, incentive, incitement, inciting, inducement, insistence, inspiration, inspiring, inspiriting, inspiritment, instance, interest, invitation, lure, needling, patronage, payment, pep talk, percentage, persuasive, pressing, pressure, pricking, prodding, profit, promoting, promotion, provocation, reassurance, reassuring, relief, reward, seconding, shred of comfort, solace, solacement, sponsorship, spur, spurring, stimulating, stimulation, stimulative, stimulus, support, supporting, sweetener, sweetening, sympathy, tutelage, urging, whet