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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

originate.

To cause (someone or something) to be; to bring (someone or something) into existence; to produce or initiate a person or thing.

9 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/əˈɹɪd͡ʒɪneɪt/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/əˈɹɪd͡ʒɪnæɪt/Australia/əˈɹəd͡ʒənæɪt/New-Zealand
  1. To cause (someone or something) to be; to bring (someone or something) into existence; to produce or initiate a person or thing.

    transitive
    Einstein originated the theory of relativity.
  2. To come into existence; to have origin or beginning; to spring, be derived (from, with).

    intransitive
    The scheme originated with the governor and council.
Where this word comes from

From Medieval Latin orīginātus, perfect passive participle of orīginō (“to begin, give rise to”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more), from orīgō (orīgin- in compounds) + -ō. Compare Italian originare and Spanish originar. By surface analysis, origin + -ate.

adj
  1. Founded on, having its origin in (something).

    not-comparable · obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

From Medieval Latin orīginātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more. By surface analysis, origin + -ate.

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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.