reduplicate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to double; repeat.
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Grammar. to form (a derivative or inflected form) by doubling a specified syllable or other portion of the primitive, sometimes with fixed modifications, as in Greek léloipa “I have left,” leípo “I leave.”
verb (used without object)
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to become doubled.
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Grammar. to become reduplicated.
adjective
verb
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to make or become double; repeat
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to repeat (a sound or syllable) in a word or (of a sound or syllable) to be repeated, esp in forming inflections in certain languages
adjective
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doubled or repeated
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(of petals or sepals) having the margins curving outwards
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of reduplicate
1560–70; < Late Latin reduplicātus (past participle of reduplicāre ), equivalent to Latin re- re- + duplic ( āre ) to double + -ātus -ate 1 ( see duplicate)
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.
Sir Hubert Wilkins, bearded Arctic explorer, offered to reduplicate a stunt he described to an Idaho Falls lecture audience.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lefty gave us his magnificently written poem which he could never reduplicate because he had lost his hand.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
Over he goes—and as it happens—as it happens—he has reduplicate fore-limbs, one pair being not unlike wings.
From The Wonderful Visit by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
In the present English there is no undoubted perfect or reduplicate form.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
He maintains that it is the d in d-d, the reduplicate pr�terite of do.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
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.
