operate

English Online Dictionary. What means operate‎? What does operate mean?

English

Etymology

From Latin operātus, perfect passive participle of operor (“to work, labor, toil, have effect”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒpəɹeɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑpəɹeɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɒpəɹeɪt
• Hyphenation: op‧er‧ate

Verb

operate (third-person singular simple present operates, present participle operating, simple past and past participle operated)

1. (transitive or intransitive) To perform a work or labour; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act.

2. (intransitive) To produce an effect.
   1. (intransitive) To produce an appropriate physical effect; to issue in the result designed by nature; especially (medicine) to take appropriate effect on the human system.
   2. (intransitive) To act or produce an effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence.
3. (transitive) To bring about as an effect; to cause.
4. (medicine, transitive or intransitive) To perform some manual act upon a human body in a methodical manner, and usually with instruments, with a view to restore soundness or health, as in amputation, lithotomy, etc.

5. (transitive or intransitive) To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits.
6. (transitive) To put into, or to continue in, operation or activity; to work.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

• “operate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “operate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Italian

Adjective

operate pl

1. plural of operata

Verb

operate

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

Anagrams

• poetare, poeterà

Latin

Participle

operāte

1. vocative masculine singular of operātus

Spanish

Verb

operate

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