designate
Americanverb (used with object)
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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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Number the Stars
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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
The fair prompted President Harrison to designate October 12 a national holiday, Columbus Day, which today serves to anchor a few thousand parades and a three-day weekend.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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
The case stems 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 ● Jun. 13, 2026
An uncritical viewing designates this as another “all’s well that ends well” gag.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2026
The directive designates Turks as the “original” people of modern-day Turkey, which has been inhabited by successions of people throughout history—including Hurrians, Greeks, Armenians, Persians and Kurds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
Goss used the pronoun that designates a male animal, not the pronoun for a human being in the masculine role of kemmer.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Its powerful Revolutionary Guards have been stopping vessels trying to transit the trade route in recent days, including six that state television on Monday said had sailed outside Iran's designated route.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
This calls for a full-time office designated to rebuild a professional intelligence agency that works.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The U.S. has held off on blacklisting CXMT, according to Reuters, though the company has been designated as a national-security risk and approved for the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
It prohibits playing ball games in public parks, except on designated courts or fields.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The vastness of the night beyond the house, the dark trees, the welcoming shadows, the cool new-mown grass—all this had been reserved, he had designated it as belonging exclusively to himself and Cecilia.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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
But as Exxon replies, a “substantial portion of the S&P 500 including the majority of Delaware incorporated issuers, maintain exclusive-forum provisions designating a single court for internal affairs litigation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
“You don’t want localities or states getting into the business of designating their enemies or their political adversaries or the people they disagree with as terrorists. That’s just not a good thing,” Sinnar said.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 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
“What were your instructions,” Eldon Rosen asked, “if you wound up designating a human as android?”
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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.
