delegate
/ˈdɛlɪɡət/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.70 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
noun
A representative at a conference, etc.
noun
A type of variable storing a reference to a method with a particular signature, analogous to a function pointer.
noun
A member of a governmental legislature who lacks voting power.
Example Sentences
- "Historically, all viable frameworks have always provided a mechanism to implement callbacks. C# goes one step further and encapsulates callbacks into callable objects called delegates."
- "The house of delegates in apartheid-era South Africa lacked any real voting power."
- "New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was perceived to delegate effectively. Wayne Mapp, a minister under Key observed he had 'a different style than the traditional style of New Zealand political management. He delegates in the manner of a chief executive, and lets ministers get on with their jobs' (Mapp 2014)."
- "The war on Covid-19 was delegated to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, a paralysed NHS and scientists publicly feuding over dud data."
Etymology
From Middle English delegat, from Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus substantivized from the nominative masculine singular of dēlēgātus, the perfect passive participle of dēlēgō (“to send, assign, delegate”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). See also legate.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: delegat, dēlēgātus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɛlɪɡət/
- British English: /ˈdɛlɪɡət/
Usage
- American usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- Obsolete