originate
Americanverb (used without object)
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originates,
present (3rd person singular)
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originated,
past participle, past
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originating
present participle
-
to take its origin or rise; begin; start; arise.
The practice originated during the Middle Ages.
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(of a train, bus, or other public conveyance) to begin a scheduled run at a specified place.
This train originates at Philadelphia.
verb (used with object)
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originates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
originated,
past participle, past
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originating
present participle
verb
-
to come or bring into being
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(intr) (of a bus, train, etc) to begin its journey at a specified point
Synonym Usage
See discover.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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originationnoun
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originatornoun
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self-originationnoun
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originableadjective
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self-originatedadjective
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self-originatingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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originatesimple
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originatessimple
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have originatedperfect
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has originatedperfect
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am originatingprogressive
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are originatingprogressive
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is originatingprogressive
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have been originatingperfect progressive
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has been originatingperfect progressive
Past
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originatedsimple
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had originatedperfect
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was originatingprogressive
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were originatingprogressive
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had been originatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of originate
First recorded in 1645–55; probably back formation from origination (from French ), from Latin orīginātiō “etymology”; see origin, -ate 1, ion
Explanation
Originate is a verb that means to start or create something. You can originate the idea of adding a fancy new coffee machine to your company's break room, and before long, your entire office could be happily drinking mocha lattes. Originate is the place or point at which any new thing or idea starts. It usually doesn't end there, though. A carpet that originates in Turkey can travel all the way to an apartment in New York. A rumor can originate during first period, but by lunchtime it will have made its way around the entire high school.
Vocabulary lists containing originate
100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
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Jumpstart Your Vocab: Synonyms for "Begin"
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Ten Words from Today's NY Times - June 6, 2012
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Between approximately ages 50 and 75, the researchers found a sharp decline in microglia that originate during embryonic development.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Many originate overseas, but a surprising number come from inside the walls of U.S. prisons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The treaty governs the use of water from six rivers, whose headwaters originate in India but flow into Pakistan as part of the Indus basin -- a resource relied on by hundreds of millions.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
Because many microglia in aging humans appear to originate from blood stem cells, anything that changes cells in the blood or bone marrow could potentially influence the brain as well.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
This proved such a hit—Wall Street would buy your loans, even if you would not!—that a new company, called B&C mortgage, was founded to do nothing but originate and sell.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
The Fed could decide that much of the recent inflation pressure originates from energy and geopolitical disruption and leave rates unchanged.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
The term originates in the 1990s, but its spirit goes further back—at least to British computer scientist Alan Turing, who devised what became known as the Turing test.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
The classic example is of dubious historical accuracy, but originates from the British occupation of India.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
The Rhine originates in the Swiss Alps, flows through and along the borders of several countries, and empties into the North Sea in the Netherlands.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
“The vital spirit originates here, in-the heart, and is perfected by the lungs, which inspire the blood with air,” Hamlet explained.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Harbour, who is an executive producer of the series along with Bateman, originated the project after being inspired by a New Yorker true-crime article about a fatal suburban love triangle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
What came back was a long list of numerals representing the phones’ connections to the network—all of which originated at a cell tower in Georgia, despite the South Carolina area codes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
GRAIL’s Galleri test looks for methylation patterns in DNA that may indicate a cancer signal and predict where it originated.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
Nepali police say they are looking into where these comments have originated from to identify addresses and phone numbers.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Jilin was at the southwestern edge of the Great Wood, where the Nir originated.
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
The Systemiq research estimates that roughly a third of Himalayan glacier melt is driven by black carbon, much of it originating from brick kilns in the plains.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
"A disaster originating in one part of the Himalayan region can have consequences far beyond national boundaries, affecting river systems, ecosystems, livelihoods and communities across South Asia."
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Curry, who died Tuesday at the age of 80, is best remembered for originating the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in both the stage and film versions of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
This lending system invites moral hazard, as non-banks make money by originating more mortgages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The engineers, Burnham charged, “had contributed little or nothing either in the way of originating novel features or of showing the possibilities of modern engineering practice in America.”
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
