irradiate

American  

[ih-ray-dee-ayt, ih-ray-dee-it, -ayt] / ɪˈreɪ diˌeɪt, ɪˈreɪ di ɪt, -ˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

• irradiates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• irradiated,
  past participle,  past
• irradiating
  present participle

1. to shed rays of light upon; illuminate.

2. to illumine intellectually or spiritually.

3. to brighten as if with light.

4. to radiate (light, illumination, etc.).

5. to heat with radiant energy.

6. to treat by exposure to radiation, as of ultraviolet light.

7. to expose to radiation.

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verb (used without object)

• irradiates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• irradiated,
  past participle,  past
• irradiating
  present participle

1. Archaic.

   1. to emit rays; shine.

   2. to become radiant.

adjective

1. irradiated; bright.

irradiate British  

/ ɪˈreɪdɪˌeɪt /

verb

1. (tr) physics to subject to or treat with light or other electromagnetic radiation or with beams of particles

2. (tr) to expose (food) to electromagnetic radiation to kill bacteria and retard deterioration

3. (tr) to make clear or bright intellectually or spiritually; illumine

4. a less common word for radiate

5. obsolete (intr) to become radiant

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irradiate Scientific  

/ ĭ-rā′dē-āt′ /

1. To expose to or treat with radiation. For example, meat sold as food is often irradiated with x-rays or other radiation to kill bacteria; uranium 238 can be irradiated with neutrons to create fissionable plutonium 239.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• irradiator
  noun
• irradiative
  adjective
• nonirradiated
  adjective
• unirradiated
  adjective
• unirradiative
  adjective
• irradiatingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• irradiating
  present
• irradiated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• irradiate
  simple
• irradiates
  simple
• have irradiated
  perfect
• has irradiated
  perfect
• am irradiating
  progressive
• are irradiating
  progressive
• is irradiating
  progressive
• have been irradiating
  perfect progressive
• has been irradiating
  perfect progressive

Past

• irradiated
  simple
• had irradiated
  perfect
• was irradiating
  progressive
• were irradiating
  progressive
• had been irradiating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will irradiate
  simple
• will have irradiated
  perfect
• will be irradiating
  progressive
• will have been irradiating
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of irradiate

1595–1605; < Latin irradiātus, past participle of irradiāre to shine upon. See ir- ¹, radiate

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

irradiate irradiates irradiated irradiating

Eradication was possible through the sterile insect technique, which uses gamma radiation to irradiate screwworm pupae and create sterile male flies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

Inexplicable fires first obliterate Japanese freighters and irradiate fish, a ripped-from-the-headlines echo of the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident—a Japanese tuna ship showered in radioactive fallout from the Castle Bravo thermonuclear test at Bikini Atoll.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 3, 2023

"What we showed in this study is that when we took a crystal of titanium dioxide and irradiate it with an electron beam, the naturally occurring narrow cracks actually filled in and healed themselves."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023

But thanks to a $14 million grant from the Department of Defense, the refurbished K-500 will irradiate chips to see how they perform under challenging conditions resembling those in space.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 12, 2023

All his work since then had culminated in a factory that could irradiate two hundred tons of uranium at a time to produce a half pound of plutonium every two hundred days.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

In one of the experimental approaches, the cemented carbide rod leads the direction of fabrication while the laser directly irradiates the top of the rod.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2026

Rebecca understood that while regular radiation irradiates all the tissue it travels through, proton therapy delivers the full dose to the tumor and then it stops.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2019

The French conductor’s luminous elegance irradiates Menuhin’s intense humanity; there’s nothing else quite like it in the extensive discographies of either artist.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2016

Heeger’s team irradiates the fibroblasts to prevent them from replicating during this process.

From Nature ● May 9, 2016

Divine power comes down, illuminates and irradiates the man for the moment, and he speaks for the time with authority, with knowledge, which in his normal state he will be unable probably to compass.

From Avatâras Four lectures delivered at the twenty-fourth anniversary meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, December, 1899 by Annie Wood Besant

Its three plexiglass vaults hold ghostly symbols of procreation: an irradiated vortex, the fertility goddess Hera, a DNA spiral.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Those molecules change shape when irradiated by the sun, flexing into a strained version of their regular form.

From BBC ● May 7, 2026

As Bonlieu toiled away in Auckland, Warrior crew members were moving a community of cancer-stricken Marshall Islanders, ignored by the American government that had irradiated their atoll, to a new home.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025

Curtis makes his living as a Hollywood screenwriter, penning B-horror movies filled with irradiated mutants and monsters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2024

A further calculation gave Seaborg pause: the irradiated uranium would be ferociously radioactive.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

This was achieved by irradiating the film with an optical vortex, resulting in prints of exceptional positional accuracy at the micrometer scale.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2023

Biologists are irradiating thousands of male mosquitoes in labs, to be released later, in the hope that their offspring will be unviable because of DNA damage.

From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2023

On Peleliu, men fought in the irradiating heat and on coral, which made finding shelter well-nigh impossible.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2017

The broth for her curry ramen, served with fried chicken, candy-coats the tongue before irradiating it with chili pepper heat; the soup has more mood swings than a pre-K day-care center.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2015

Plastic is the new protector; we wrap the already plastic tumblers of hotels in more plastic, and seal the toilet seats like state secrets after irradiating them with ultraviolet light.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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