generate

English

Etymology

From Latin generātus, perfect passive participle of generō (beget, procreate, produce), from genus (a kind, race, family); see genus.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ɚ.eɪt/
    • (file)

Verb

generate (third-person singular simple present generates, present participle generating, simple past and past participle generated)

  1. (transitive) To bring into being; give rise to.
    The discussion generated an uproar.
    • 1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 126:
      The Ecclesiastical Commission was generated by Sir Robert Peel and bore the marks of Peel’s personality; bureaucratic, capable and cold.
    • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian:
      In the last 20 minutes Athletic began to generate the sort of pressure of which they are capable, but by then it was far too late: the game had begun to slip away from them as early as the seventh minute.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them [] is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. [] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate [] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.
  2. (transitive) To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process.
    Adding concentrated sulphuric acid to water generates heat.
  3. (transitive) To procreate, beget.
    They generated many offspring.
  4. (transitive, mathematics) To form a figure from a curve or solid.
    Rotating a circle generates a sphere.
  5. (intransitive) To appear or occur; be generated.
    • 1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers:
      Mrs. Fennel, seeing the steam begin to generate on the countenances of her guests, crossed over and touched the fiddler's elbow and put her hand on the serpent's mouth.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Coordinate terms

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Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Verb

generate

  1. inflection of generare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person plural imperative
    3. feminine plural past participle

Anagrams

Latin

Participle

generāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of generātus

Spanish

Verb

generate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of generar combined with te
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