amputate
Americanverb (used with object)
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amputates,
present (3rd person singular)
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amputated,
past participle, past
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amputating
present participle
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to cut off (all or part of a limb or digit of the body), as by surgery.
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to prune, lop off, or remove.
Because of space limitations the editor amputated the last two paragraphs of the news report.
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Obsolete. to prune, as branches of trees.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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amputationnoun
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amputatornoun
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nonamputationnoun
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self-amputationnoun
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amputativeadjective
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postamputationadjective
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unamputatedadjective
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unamputativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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amputatesimple
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amputatessimple
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have amputatedperfect
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has amputatedperfect
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am amputatingprogressive
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are amputatingprogressive
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is amputatingprogressive
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have been amputatingperfect progressive
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has been amputatingperfect progressive
Past
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amputatedsimple
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had amputatedperfect
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was amputatingprogressive
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were amputatingprogressive
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had been amputatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of amputate
1630–40; < Latin amputātus pruned, trimmed (past participle of amputāre ), equivalent to am ( bi ) around ( cf. ambi-) + put- trim + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
Use the verb amputate when you need to describe the surgical removal of a limb, such as an arm or a leg. For example, a doctor might amputate an accident victim's badly crushed arm. No doubt you hope you'll never have to tell someone that you have to amputate, but if you do make sure you pronounce the word correctly, with the accent on the first syllable: "AM-pyo-tate." Amputate comes from the Latin word amputat-, meaning "lopped off." It can describe the removal of limbs or digits from both humans and animals.
Vocabulary lists containing amputate
Boy: Tales of Childhood
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"Kids Are Inventors, Too"
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"They Speak for Success" and "Breaking the Ice"
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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:
Surgeons at Russells Hall Hospital in neighbouring Dudley later had to amputate both of her legs below the knee, as well as both of her hands, due to the spread of the condition.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026
He did his best to amputate above the sickly parts in the hope of saving the patient’s life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
Not long after, she went through more procedures: one to amputate her damaged limb and another to cut through her neck to retrieve a fishing hook that had migrated to tissue outside the esophagus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
Shaymaa was rushed to Nasser Hospital, where doctors quickly decided to amputate.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2024
"They're not gonna amputate it, baby. They're gonna fix it," she assured her.
From "Patina" by Jason Reynolds
He gives them scene transplants or amputates a character or administers dialogue transfusions, but somehow these measures never restore these dramas to robust health.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bustamante insisted that a voter could not remove the ink and vote more than once "unless he amputates a finger, and if he does, I'll be delighted to let him vote two times, even ten."
From Time Magazine Archive
Flimsy characterization amputates the play just short of greatness.
From Time Magazine Archive
Is the surgeon guilty of wrong who amputates a limb to preserve life?
From Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject by E. N. Elliott
It amputates his imagination at its tap root.
From The Lost Art of Reading by Gerald Stanley Lee
A critically endangered roloway monkey has given birth only months after a pioneering operation spared her from having her foot amputated.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
Archival discoveries, including a long-forgotten 19th-century autobiography, are changing how historians understand Shadrack Byfield, an English veteran of the War of 1812 who buried his own amputated arm and later created a custom prosthesis.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
At a hospital in Caracas, doctors amputated his legs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
Among those taken in are a blind swan, an eagle with an amputated wing and a stork that suffered a concussion during an air attack.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
Winnie was concerned, and I soon learned that there were press reports that I was having a toe amputated.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Once serious infection sets in, amputating a foot or limb may be the only option to save a patient’s life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
Procedures that have been performed by staff at Al Shifa under such circumstances have included amputating limbs and fingers, stitching up serious wounds, and treating serious burns, said Abu Selmeyah, without elaborating.
From Reuters ● Nov. 10, 2023
A staph infection meant amputating her left foot below the knee in 2017.
From Washington Times ● May 4, 2023
Later, doctors recommended amputating his left leg, his mother said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 18, 2022
For several days, it was uncertain whether he would live, and doctors contemplated amputating his arm.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
