delimit
Americanverb (used with object)
-
delimits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
delimited,
past participle, past
-
delimiting
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
delimitsimple
-
delimitssimple
-
have delimitedperfect
-
has delimitedperfect
-
am delimitingprogressive
-
are delimitingprogressive
-
is delimitingprogressive
-
have been delimitingperfect progressive
-
has been delimitingperfect progressive
Past
-
delimitedsimple
-
had delimitedperfect
-
was delimitingprogressive
-
were delimitingprogressive
-
had been delimitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of delimit
1850–55; < French délimiter < Latin dēlīmitāre, equivalent to dē- de- + līmitāre to limit
Explanation
When you set the boundaries of something, you delimit it. Suburban homeowners often delimit their property lines with tall privacy fences. You can literally delimit something, the way you might delimit the boundaries of your airplane seat by planting your elbow on the armrest. There is also a figurative way to delimit, like when you delimit your summer schedule in an attempt to keep your cousin from visiting you for a month. Delimit comes from the Latin delimitare, "to mark out as a boundary."
Vocabulary lists containing delimit
Engineering - Introductory
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Engineering: Defining Problems and Designing Solutions - Introductory
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Engineering: Defining Problems and Designing Solutions - Middle School and High School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Tokyo and Manila said late May they would start formal talks to "delimit the maritime boundary" of their exclusive economic zones and continental shelf between them.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Congress took steps to delimit presidential discretion, the court said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
One can see this playing out today in the rules for citizenship, voting and other mechanisms that serve to define and delimit participation in democratic politics.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2023
The two men also agreed that by the end of April they would set up a bilateral commission to delimit the joint border, the statement said.
From Reuters ● Apr. 6, 2022
The second is missing the commas that delimit the phrases making up the list of inspirations: cooking, her family, and her dog.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
The Comoe River clearly delimits part of the northeastern frontier between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso -- but the land border is poorly demarcated.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2025
The phenomenon in which an initial antibody response to a virus dominates and delimits the response to later strains of the same virus is called "immunological imprinting," or "original antigenic sin."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2024
“The government must affirmatively prove that its firearms regulation is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms,” Justice Thomas wrote.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 23, 2022
Language is developed continuously from such facts, and thus is explained how, "beyond the general concept of expressive movement, there is no specific quality which delimits language in a non-arbitrary manner."
From Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic by Benedetto Croce
And there is no limit which pre-exists to the line by which the constituent and legislative power of the State delimits the sphere subject to its sanctions.
From The Reform of Education by Giovanni Gentile
A lower-risk zone with a 20km radius has also been delimited.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
It was designed to corral a small group of suspects within a delimited space, thereby reducing the number of variables the writer needed to juggle and the reader to remember.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
“A scientist’s explanations about other animals are dictated by the data she collects, which are influenced by the questions she asks, which are steered by her imagination, which is delimited by her senses,” Yong writes.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2022
“We must fix the flaws in our public health system, empower scientific leadership to take proactive actions and have a delimited framework for how to use blunt tools when all other options are exhausted.”
From Washington Times ● May 3, 2021
That is, there is no item in an outline, no branch of a tree, no unit of discourse that consistently corresponds to a block of text delimited by a blank line or an indentation.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
One task will be delimiting the ocean, which some researchers think could exist in multiple layers, separated by high-pressure species of ice.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 5, 2023
To date, only 11 percent of people to have ever reached the Kármán boundary delimiting the earthly from the ethereal have been women.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 10, 2021
What’s so remarkable about its use in Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the way the song embodies its own meaning, creating and delimiting a liberating space right at the film’s center.
From Slate ● Dec. 10, 2019
And how can kids find their way into something mature and complex if we are always delimiting for them what they should believe?
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 28, 2019
Shape of presphenoid, nasals, interparietal, frontoparietal sutures, and length and degree of the openings of the incisive foramina are useful in delimiting subspecies.
From Speciation and Evolution of the Pygmy Mice, Genus Baiomys by Robert L. Packard
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
