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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

generate.

To bring into being; give rise to.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/Received-Pronunciation[ˈd͡ʒɛn.ɹeɪt]Received-Pronunciation/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/Canada, General-American[ˈd͡ʒɛn.ɹeɪt]Canada, General-American
  1. To bring into being; give rise to.

    transitive
    The discussion generated an uproar.
  2. To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process.

    transitive
    Adding concentrated sulphuric acid to water generates heat.
  3. To procreate, beget.

    transitive
    They generated many offspring.
  4. To form a figure from a curve or solid.

    transitive
    Rotating a circle generates a sphere.
  5. To appear or occur; be generated.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Latin generō (“beget, procreate, produce”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from genus (“a kind, race, family”, gener- in compounds) + -ō; see genus. Compare Italian generare, French générer (and its older (and now obsolete) English cognate from Middle French, gender (“engender, breed, copulate”)).

adj
  1. Generated, not self-existent.

    not-comparable · rare
Where this word comes from

Learned borrowing from Latin generātus, perfect passive participle of generō (“beget, procreate, produce”). See Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.