Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

co-opt

/ˈkoʊˌɑpt/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.88 in modern English

Syllables: co-opt
IPA: /ˈkoʊˌɑpt/

9

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

2

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To elect as a fellow member of a group, such as a committee.

Transitive verb

verb

To commandeer, appropriate or take over.

Transitive verb

verb

To absorb or assimilate into an established group, movement, category, etc.

Transitive verb

Example Sentences

"Artists' engagement with bleeding-edge tech will always have the potential to critique its destructive civil and military applications, as well as the potential to be co-opted by them—as propaganda or R&D—as the rise of the so-called knowledge economy has amply demonstrated."
"In the resolution between the culture and the counterculture, it is impossible to tell who co-opted whom, because in reality the bohemians and the bourgeois co-opted each other. They emerge from this process as bourgeois bohemians, or Bobos."
"Its opening track, Mastermind, offers one possible answer to a theoretical question about what prog rock might have sounded like in the highly unlikely event that it had co-opted Giorgio Moroder’s brand of electronic disco: nearly seven meandering, episodic minutes of unlikely chord changes […]"

Etymology

From Latin cooptō (“to choose, elect”), from co(m)- + optō (“to opt”).

Origin

Source language: Latin

Word Breakdown

Root: cooptō

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈkoʊˌɑpt/
British English: /ˈkəʊˌɒpt/

Usage

Transitive verb

Inflected Forms

co-opts (present, singular) co-opting (participle, present) co-opted (participle, past) co-opted (past) coopt (alternative) coöpt (alternative)

Phrases

co-optation co-optative co-option co-optive

Frequently Paired Words

recuperation

Rhymes With

stopped dropped adopt topped opt popped chopped cropped swapped hopped photoshopped propped

Questions

How do you pronounce co-opt?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈkoʊˌɑpt/.
What does co-opt mean?: To elect as a fellow member of a group, such as a committee.
Where does co-opt come from?: It is traced to Latin.

How to pronounce co-opt

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “co-opt”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈkoʊˌɑpt/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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