designate
Americanverb (used with object)
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designates,
present (3rd person singular)
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designated,
past participle, past
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designating
present participle
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to mark or point out; indicate; show; specify.
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to denote; indicate; signify.
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to name; entitle; style.
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to nominate or select for a duty, office, purpose, etc.; appoint; assign.
adjective
verb
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to indicate or specify
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to give a name to; style; entitle
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to select or name for an office or duty; appoint
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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designatornoun
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dedesignateverb (used with object)
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redesignateverb (used with object)
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designativeadjective
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designatoryadjective
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nondesignateadjective
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nondesignativeadjective
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undesignatedadjective
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undesignativeadjective
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well-designatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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designatesimple
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designatessimple
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have designatedperfect
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has designatedperfect
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am designatingprogressive
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are designatingprogressive
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is designatingprogressive
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have been designatingperfect progressive
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has been designatingperfect progressive
Past
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designatedsimple
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had designatedperfect
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was designatingprogressive
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were designatingprogressive
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had been designatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of designate
1640–50; < Latin dēsignātus, past participle of dēsignāre. See design, -ate 1
Explanation
To designate is to give something a specific status. If you designate your house an opera-free zone, it means that you've officially declared that no opera is allowed to be played there. To give a person or thing an official status is to designate it as something, like when you designate a meeting place if members of your group get lost at the amusement park. Sometimes, it can carry responsibility or an assignment, like when your teammates designate you as the captain. It can also show a category, like when you designate certain books to the humor section of the bookstore where you work.
Vocabulary lists containing designate
Baseball: A Lexicon
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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:
As the former head of the State Department’s office that recommended to the secretary of state which groups to designate, I’ve been involved in the designations of hundreds of individuals and organizations.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
For clients who like to pick stocks, advisers may designate a “play money” bucket.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
“After thoughtful discussions, the City of West Hollywood, the WeHo Pride production team, and Kathy Hilton have determined that the 2026 WeHo Pride Parade will not designate a Grand Marshal Icon honoree,” read the statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
A wildlife trust has been inspired by Sir David Attenborough's climate change mantra to designate 11 nature recovery zones in honour of the broadcaster's 100th birthday.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
Warders’ lunch boxes were known as “suitcases” and normally a warder would designate a prisoner, usually his favorite, to carry his “suitcase,” and then reward him with half a sandwich.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The case stemmed from a broader legal dispute over the renaming of the cultural institution, which US law designates as a memorial to President John F Kennedy.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
China’s latest Five-Year Plan explicitly designates it as one of seven “future industries” set to drive national growth.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
An uncritical viewing designates this as another “all’s well that ends well” gag.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2026
A guardian in the legal sense is usually someone a court designates to be in charge of medical and personal decisions for an incapacitated person.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 26, 2026
To initiate spatial teleportation, the traveler enters the STM with the EGG and designates their chosen timeprint.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
After the person’s death, the pooled funds revert to Medicaid, but the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust funds go to the designated heirs.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
Treasury Department designated four Iranians for sanctions for hacks of critical infrastructure dating to 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Network Rail is suing two rail companies for more than £5m after a fuel spill caused by a train derailment threatened an "environmental disaster" at a designated site for protection.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
In March, the government broke off its contracts with Anthropic and designated the company a supply chain risk after it refused to grant the military unfettered access to its AI models.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
No, this tool sprouted propellers the moment it left Petey’s hand and hovered to a designated spot on a nearby rack.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Under its Green Deal and related policies, the European Union is designating 30% of the continent as nature-protected by 2030.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
On his first day back in office, US President Donald Trump announced he would increase pressure on Mexico and the cartels, including designating the criminal enterprises terrorist groups.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
You can do this by designating a child as an authorized user, which is a person added to a credit-card account by the primary cardholder, although some issuers have age minimums as low as 13.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
“For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is designating both microplastics and pharmaceuticals as priority contaminant groups,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2026
Each library cart was labeled with two laminated cards: one with the name of a team, the other designating a range of Dewey decimal numbers.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
