animate
Americanverb (used with object)
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animates,
present (3rd person singular)
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animated,
past participle, past
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animating
present participle
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to give life to; make alive.
God animated the dust.
- Antonyms:
- kill
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to make lively, vivacious, or vigorous; give zest or spirit to.
Her presence animated the party.
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to fill with courage or boldness; encourage.
to animate weary troops.
- Synonyms:
- exhilarate, arouse, hearten, inspirit, inspire
-
to move or stir to action; motivate.
He was animated by religious zeal.
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to give motion to.
leaves animated by a breeze.
-
to render or produce (a story, character, movie, etc.) by using animation: to animate the characters in a video game;
to animate a children's story;
to animate the characters in a video game;
an animated film.
adjective
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alive; possessing life.
animate creatures.
- Antonyms:
- dead
-
lively.
an animate expression of joy.
-
of or relating to animal life.
-
able to move voluntarily.
-
Linguistics. belonging to a syntactic category or having a semantic feature that is characteristic of words denoting beings regarded as having perception and volition (opposed to inanimate).
verb
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to give life to or cause to come alive
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to make lively; enliven
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to encourage or inspire
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to impart motion to; move to action or work
-
to record on film or video tape so as to give movement to
an animated cartoon
adjective
-
being alive or having life
-
gay, spirited, or lively
Usage
What does animate mean? To animate is to make lively or give spirit to. Someone can animate a dull situation by bringing some energy to it, such as with humor, music, or anything that is associated with movement or emotion. To animate also means to give motion to, the way a cartoonist or animator does with drawings. Animated media include cartoons, 3D films, video games, and visual effects. To animate also means to motivate or to encourage to take action, as in Coach really animated the team with her pre-game speech. Animate can be used as an adjective to mean lively or full of energy, as in Carly had an animate spirit that people liked to be around. Animate can also mean able to move voluntarily. It can also broadly describe any living being as separate from inanimate objects, which cannot move on their own and don’t have their own will. When animate is used as an adjective, it is pronounced as [ an-uh-mit ], rather than [ an-uh-meyt ], as the verb form is. Example: I animate characters for children’s shows using a computer program.
Synonym Usage
Animate, invigorate, stimulate mean to enliven. To animate is to create a liveliness: Health and energy animated his movements. To invigorate means to give physical vigor, to refresh, to exhilarate: Mountain air invigorates. To stimulate is to arouse a latent liveliness on a particular occasion: Caffeine will stimulate you and keep you alert.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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animatenessnoun
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interanimateverb (used with object)
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nonanimateadjective
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nonanimatingadjective
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semianimateadjective
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unanimatingadjective
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animatelyadverb
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animatinglyadverb
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nonanimatinglyadverb
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unanimatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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animatesimple
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animatessimple
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have animatedperfect
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has animatedperfect
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am animatingprogressive
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are animatingprogressive
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is animatingprogressive
-
have been animatingperfect progressive
-
has been animatingperfect progressive
Past
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animatedsimple
-
had animatedperfect
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was animatingprogressive
-
were animatingprogressive
-
had been animatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of animate
1375–1425; late Middle English animat < Latin animātus filled with breath or air, quickened, animated (past participle of animāre ). See anima, -ate 1
Explanation
At its most basic, animate means simply alive, while inanimate means not living, not moving around. But animate also means spirited, or brought to life. Animated cartoons are what we think of as pictures come to life: animation. Animate derives from the Latin anima "life, soul, spirit." When you seem particularly filled with life, or high-spirited, if you laugh loudly, or use broad gestures, you're animated.
Vocabulary lists containing animate
Speak Your Mind: Anim
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"Frankenstein"
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"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" by Frederick Douglass
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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:
They just needed to submit photographs of themselves and their loved ones, and AI would then animate the material following specific prompts.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
You are close to its trunk, experiencing its lofty height and its many branches spreading out like gesturing limbs of an animate creature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
Similar concerns animate Andrews’ sculpture practice, which she’s returned to now that her life has regained equilibrium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 27, 2026
Such outcomes would not resolve the broader debates that animate these cases.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2026
We needed to animate the trends and test them against real experience, to supply characters and narrative.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
By placing sculpture and design in direct dialogue, the show reveals how thoroughly Noguchi’s sculptural intelligence animates every object he created.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
“Their hijacking of the public square is made possible by the original sin that animates their AI products — a brazen theft of intellectual property that has occurred at an unprecedented scale,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
AI companies' "hijacking of the public square is made possible by the original sin that animates their A.I. products -- a brazen theft of intellectual property that has occurred at an unprecedented scale," said A.G.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
That core truth animates the centuries-old English tradition of equity, which developed as a system to do justice when courts of law weren’t up to the task.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2025
This entire episode took me from fear to a rage that burned in me then, animates me now, and will likely leave me on fire for the rest of my days.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” reigns supreme over nine live-action movies and two animated features.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Fifth place went to "Moana," Disney's latest live-action remake of one of its animated hits, with $5.3 million.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Wooden panels carved by the Indonesian Mentawai people in the first half of the 20th century are animated by playful monkeys that recall the dreamy animals of Henri Rousseau.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Sony’s two animated “Spider-Verse” movies, which feature an alternate version of the superhero named Miles Morales, were award-winning hits that attracted younger audiences.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
To his mother, he seemed to be a different man: well read, animated, involved.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
The Whatnot auctions are events—sellers are personalities who fire up bids, chats buzz with hundreds of buyers, and the animating pressure is often the same: bid now or lose out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
It is about much more profound questions of Britain's sovereignty, economy and place in the world which have been animating our politics for more than a decade now.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
She’s not as concerned with settling differences as with understanding the thoughts and emotions animating the clashes of her divergent characters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2026
Democracy demands allegiance to ideals of human dignity and political equality, the protection of which is its animating purpose.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026
But because ambition succeeds best when disguised by virtue, he wanted to furnish the Alliance with an animating ideology—a manifest destiny, as it were, or mission civilisatrice.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
