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
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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:
Signatories agree to develop “robust” internal monitoring of models, use outside auditors to test them, and designate an independent board committee to oversee the internal safety team.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
They’ve already succeeded in convincing the government to designate the Vjosa Narta river area as a national park.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
The third requires the government to consider economic and national security tradeoffs when deciding whether to designate a particular area as "critical habitat."
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
If you don’t know who to designate, the first thing to think about is who your state would pick if you don’t decide.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
“We wear seven different colors, to designate our jobs. As a maintenance technician, my deck jersey, float coat, and helmet are an ugly green, the color of overcooked peas.”
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
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
The U.S. rightly designates GPS as critical infrastructure, but the reference frame that gives every GPS signal its meaning enjoys no such protection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Known as the Record of Emergency Data, this form designates that beneficiaries get $100,000 tax-free cash and any unreceived payments after a servicemember dies.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
Second, the order designates as an organization something the FBI’s past leadership has described as an ideology.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
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
Roberts moved designated hitter Shohei Ohtani down to sixth in the batting order, and put catcher Will Smith behind him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
Delhi Police said on Monday it had removed the site from the list of designated protest venues.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Disagreements within the Tata Group have been simmering since the death of former chairman Ratan Tata - Noel Tata's half-brother who designated him successor after his death - in 2024.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
To celebrate Morris’s return, the town’s mayor officially designated Sept. 14 as Morris the Cat Day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
It was set on one of those specially made desks with the drawers and the slide-out keyboard tray, and a designated compartment for the printer.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
Ware also suggests designating a spot in, or near each room, to be your processing center.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
For clients caught in a negative spiral, Mr. Schore suggests a “pity party”: designating a set amount of time to wallow in misery before snapping out of it and returning to productive behavior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Deukmejian vetoed the bill, though Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in 2024 designating the slimy yellow creature as the official state slug.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
"It is the first model we are designating at this level, and requires stronger safeguards during development and before release," the blog said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
James Fisk, who supervised the American side of the talks with a diplomatic skill unexpected of a scientific appointee, brought home an agreement designating the detection of nuclear bomb tests as “technically feasible.”
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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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.
