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These are design documents, for crying out loud. If necessary, provide a DEFINITIONS section, and define "allow". Then take all the time you save obsessing over this and enjoy a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate. The system can be said to "allow" the user to do X for an internal document. So long as everybody agrees on the meaning, who cares?
My early-morning opinion... Maybe I need more coffee myself.
PS
You will also save time amongst the engineers who don't need to go back and change "allow" to whatever you decide. Nor do you have to spend time castigating engineers for being linguistic clods incapable of appreciating the finer nuance, and constantly reverting to "allow". This will improve self-esteem among engineers, and smooth interdepartmental relations.
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