generate definition

English generate definition

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/

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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

• (to bring into being): bring about, create, engender, make, produce, spawn

Antonyms

• (to bring into being): abrogate, annihilate, degenerate, extinguish, obliterate, ungenerate
• (to produce as a result of a chemical or physical process): erase

Coordinate terms

• (to bring into being): augment, foster, extend, grow

Derived terms

• regenerate

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “generate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “generate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• green tea, renegate, teen-ager, teenager

Italian generate definition

Verb

generate

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

Anagrams

• argentee, reagente

Latin generate definition

Participle

generāte

1. vocative masculine singular of generātus

Spanish generate definition

Verb

generate

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