generate

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɛn.əɹ.eɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

VerbEdit

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.
   • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, 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”, 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.

   The discussion generated an uproar.

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.

Related termsEdit

• genus
• generation
• generative
• generable
• generic
• general
• degenerate

SynonymsEdit

• (to bring into being): create

AntonymsEdit

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

TranslationsEdit

External linksEdit

• generate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• generate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

AnagramsEdit

• green tea, teenager, teen-ager

VerbEdit

generate

1. second-person plural present of generare
2. second-person plural present subjunctive of generare
3. second-person plural imperative of generare
4. feminine plural past participle of generare

AnagramsEdit

• argentee, reagente

ParticipleEdit

generāte

1. vocative masculine singular of generātus