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:
After several months of treatment, zoo officials said the decision was made to amputate Crimson’s leg.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Woodhall would amputate more than 100 limbs, plus “many hands, and fingers,” in the next 25 years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
The decision was then taken to amputate below his right knee, a procedure which took place on 2 June.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
Shaymaa was rushed to Nasser Hospital, where doctors quickly decided to amputate.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2024
I also learned that Marley had been a Rastafarian, and that Rastafari believe in a “whole body,” which is why he had refused surgery to amputate the toe.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Flimsy characterization amputates the play just short of greatness.
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
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
He tries to kindle a fire When it's forty-five below; He aims to chop at a log And amputates his toe; He hobbles back to the shack And feebly cries out "yah"!
From Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads by Various
The surgeon, who amputates a leg to save the patient's life, does good, not evil.
From A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Isaac Husik
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
The 17-year-old has since had her leg amputated, joining hundreds more Venezuelans who lost limbs during the devastating twin tremors on June 24.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
She ultimately had to have her flipper amputated, according to Jaros.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
They used a long part of the bone from my amputated big toe to make a bridge for my new nose.
From "Ugly" by Robert Hoge
Instead of amputating her arm to stop the spread of cancer, as her doctors urged her to do, Milla turns to a severely restricted diet consisting primarily of juice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
He even remembers a chilling discussion with senior doctors about amputating the damaged leg.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2024
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
That meant amputating the foot and the bottom of the leg, and fitting me with a prosthesis—an artificial leg.
From "Ugly" by Robert Hoge
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.
