dilate
/daɪˈleɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.44 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The eye doctor put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil so he could see the nerve better."
- "His heart dilates and glories in his strength."
- "Do me the favour to dilate at full / What hath befallen of them and thee till now."
- "But still they on their ancient joys dilate."
- "Houellebecq’s men[…] dilate lovingly upon the makes and models of cars and appliances, and the subsidiary brands of hospitality and conglomerates."
- "An experimenter in New York has recently advocated what he is pleased to call temporary forcible dilatation of the trachea in the treatment of membranous croup, his idea being to introduce into the trachea a dilator and to forcibly dilate, every few hours if need be, and he reports favorable results."
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin dīlātōder. Old French dilaterder. Middle English dilaten English dilate First attested in 1393, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English dilaten, from Old French dilater, from Latin dīlātō (“to spread out”), from dī- + lātus (“wide”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of dilatate.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: First attested in 1393
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
dilates (present, singular)
dilating (participle, present)
dilated (participle, past)
dilated (past)
delate (alternative)
deleate (alternative)
dylate (alternative)
more dilate (comparative)
most dilate (superlative)