demarcate
Americanverb (used with object)
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demarcates,
present (3rd person singular)
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demarcated,
past participle, past
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demarcating
present participle
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to determine or mark off the boundaries or limits of.
to demarcate a piece of property.
-
to separate distinctly.
to demarcate the lots with fences.
verb
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to mark, fix, or draw the boundaries, limits, etc, of
-
to separate or distinguish between (areas with unclear boundaries)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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demarcatesimple
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demarcatessimple
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have demarcatedperfect
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has demarcatedperfect
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am demarcatingprogressive
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are demarcatingprogressive
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is demarcatingprogressive
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have been demarcatingperfect progressive
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has been demarcatingperfect progressive
Past
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demarcatedsimple
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had demarcatedperfect
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was demarcatingprogressive
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were demarcatingprogressive
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had been demarcatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of demarcate
First recorded in 1810–20; back formation from demarcation
Explanation
To demarcate is to set or draw a boundary, like that of a country. It can also mean to separate clearly in other ways. When you demarcate, you’re creating a boundary. Election officials who create or change boundaries between districts are demarcating. Demarcating usually starts with making lines on a map, but those lines have power in the world, as they change the size of a district, state, country, or other place. The word can be used more broadly for creating other types of separation. At work, a boss could demarcate which employees are responsible for which work, which is another kind of separation.
Vocabulary lists containing demarcate
This Week in Words: September 25 - October 1, 2017
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"Coming of Age in the Dawnland," Vocabulary from the historical excerpt
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Academic Vocabulary, Units 1–3
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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:
Votive deposits in Scandinavian wetlands were ways for local elites to mark their status, appease the gods and demarcate territory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
In the other months of the year, rainbow bunting and rainbow crosswalks still demarcate LGBTQ+ businesses and historic gayborhoods, creating a visual map of the queer world.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2024
Like their Jedi namesake, Skywalker gibbons cannot swim, so rivers tend to demarcate their species boundaries.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 14, 2024
The aid group tries to preserve sacred forests by working with communities to demarcate boundaries, raise awareness about cutting trees and teach people how to financially benefit through honey harvesting or snail farming.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2023
Some thinkers have identified the two, while others regard Epistemology as a subdivision of logic; others demarcate their relative spheres by confining logic to the science of the laws of thought, i.e. to formal logic.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various
The Yellow Line demarcates territory in Gaza still under Israeli control under the ceasefire deal.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026
The so-called yellow line demarcates the boundary inside the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have withdrawn behind, as part of the US-brokered ceasefire.
From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025
The grassy edge that usually demarcates the outline of a bunker was so trampled down Johnson assumed it was a footpath.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 26, 2021
The bike lane is slightly elevated above the car lane, which feels safer than just a white line that demarcates bike lanes in many other cities.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2019
The Devils Thumb demarcates the Alaska-British Columbia border east of Petersburg, a fishing village accessible only by boat or plane.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
What was once a regional sport with deep roots and clearly demarcated borders has morphed into a sprawling battle where geography and tradition have been pushed into the background.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
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
In a decade of crossing and re-crossing, Papi treated the border and the fences that demarcated it like an exercise in prepositions: He went around it, through it, above it, below it, past it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2024
Content is demarcated by categories like “Movies,” “Comedy,” “Classic TV,” “Sci-Fi,” “Reality,” and “Season’s Greetings,” for those longing to fulfill their Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movie cravings.
From Slate ● Dec. 24, 2023
From the great plaza radiated four highways that demarcated the four asymmetrical sectors into which he divided the empire, Tawantinsuyu, “Land of the Four Quarters.”
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Indigenous leaders say its return highlights the importance of demarcating their ancestral lands to keep their traditions alive.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2024
Amid R&B performances and Cajun food trucks, his name was everywhere from the video screens lining the event’s main thoroughfare to the Bakewell Media Music Stage demarcating its southernmost end.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2022
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid says U.S. mediation has clinched a deal with Lebanon demarcating the maritime boundary, calling it a historic agreement.
From Reuters ● Oct. 11, 2022
Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, legally established its borders in 1716, demarcating the area we now know as Chianti Classico, aka "old Chianti."
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2022
The light flickered over the paper as the old woman crouched down and stared at the lines demarcating the Great Wood, the river Nir, the Kell.
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
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.
