animate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to give life to; make alive.
God animated the dust.
- Antonyms:
- kill
-
to make lively, vivacious, or vigorous; give zest or spirit to.
Her presence animated the party.
-
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.
-
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
-
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 (inanimate ).
verb
-
to give life to or cause to come alive
-
to make lively; enliven
-
to encourage or inspire
-
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.
Related Words
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
- animately adverb
- animateness noun
- animatingly adverb
- interanimate verb (used with object)
- nonanimate adjective
- nonanimating adjective
- nonanimatingly adverb
- semianimate adjective
- unanimating adjective
- unanimatingly adverb
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
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.
Other animated highlights include repeats of the delightful screen adaptation of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, and Christmas classic The Snowman.
From BBC
Debuting in second place with $20 million was "David," an animated retelling of the biblical David and Goliath story from Angel Studios, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations reported.
From Barron's
Angel Studio’s animated biblical tale “David” came in second at the box office this weekend, with an estimated domestic gross of $22 million.
From Los Angeles Times
Golden, the breakout song from animated film KPop Demon Hunters, became a huge streaming hit in 2025, setting new records on charts worldwide.
From BBC
But the earnest academic inquiry that has long animated the conference could still be found inside the convention center.
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.
