What does activate mean?

Definitions for activate
ˈæk təˌveɪtac·ti·vate

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word activate.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. trip, actuate, trigger, activate, set off, spark off, spark, trigger off, touch offverb

    put in motion or move to act

    "trigger a reaction"; "actuate the circuits"

  2. activateverb

    make active or more active

    "activate an old file"

  3. activateverb

    make more adsorptive

    "activate a metal"

  4. activate, aerateverb

    aerate (sewage) so as to favor the growth of organisms that decompose organic matter

  5. activateverb

    make (substances) radioactive

Wiktionary

  1. activateverb

    To put into action, to put to work.

  2. activateverb

    To turn on.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. To Activateverb

    To make active. This word is perhaps used only by the author alleged.

    Etymology: from active.

    As snow and ice, especially being holpen, and their cold activated by nitre or salt, will turn water into ice, and that in a few hours; so it may be, it will turn wood or stiff clay into stone, in longer time. Francis Bacon, Nat. History, №. 83.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Activateverb

    to make active

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Activate

    ak′ti-vāt, v.t. (Bacon) to make active:—pr.p. ac′tivāting; pa.p. ac′tivāted.

Editors Contribution

  1. activateverb

    American college test taking action by doing something to fulfill the function or serve the purpose of tending to be active and having the nature of automated test equipment denoting a product or action. 1.) make something active or operative. Convert into a reactive form.

    I had to become who I am to be able to activate my power.

    Etymology: Enlightened


    Submitted by Tehorah_Elyon on April 25, 2024  


  2. activate

    To make active.

    They did activate the new software using a password.


    Submitted by MaryC on March 8, 2020  

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'activate' in Verbs Frequency: #902

How to pronounce activate?

How to say activate in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of activate in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of activate in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of activate in a Sentence

  1. Karl Kraus:

    Progress celebrates victories over nature. Progress makes purses out of human skin. When people were traveling in mail coaches, the world got ahead better than it does now that salesmen fly through the air. What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way? How will the heirs of this age be taught the most basic motions that are necessary to activate the most complicated machines? Nature can rely on progress; it will avenge it for the outrage it has perpetrated on it.

  2. Darren Campo:

    Large news organizations hold that editorial integrity and the public trust are key to maintaining their business over the long term, even if news organizations fail, we don’t know that circular reporting of fake news could incite, say, a nuclear war. Nuclear powers with state-controlled news such as China and North Korea have not initiated global catastrophes. This is evidence that it takes more than a news report to activate a nuclear deployment.

  3. Gilles Verniers:

    It is an electoral strategy, create religious tension, activate religious polarization and consolidate on the Hindu vote.

  4. Natan Bar-Chama:

    When Lauren Manaker cause damage to cell membranes, Lauren Manaker are impacting the ability of the sperm to attach, penetrate and activate the complex fertilization process.

  5. Lionel Fatton:

    China needs levers to deter Taiwan from taking undesirable courses of action, especially independence-leaning initiatives, for these levers to be potent, China must( 1) have the( military) capabilities to activate them if needed, and( 2) the threat to do so must be credible in the eyes of Taipei.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

activate#10000#10049#100000

Translations for activate

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"activate." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/activate>.

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