Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

gradate

American  
[gray-dayt] / ˈgreɪ deɪt /

verb (used without object)

gradated, gradating
  1. to pass by gradual or imperceptible degrees, as one color into another.


verb (used with object)

gradated, gradating
  1. to cause to gradate.

  2. to arrange in grades.

gradate British  
/ ɡrəˈdeɪt /

verb

  1. to change or cause to change imperceptibly, as from one colour, tone, or degree to another

  2. (tr) to arrange in grades or ranks

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of gradate

First recorded in 1745–55; back formation from gradation


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:

"The windows will gradate, one side will start all white and become gray," Irwin said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2014

Still others use it to describe the ombré plaids popular in Western shirts in which two colors gradate from one to the other.

From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2010

Nay, I think it may even be a question whether we ought not to resolve that the line should never gradate itself at all, but terminate quite bluntly!

From On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2) A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature by John Ruskin

From this point the dark and light masses gradate in different directions until they merge above the ships' sails.

From The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

Let the reader take the two extreme tints, and carefully gradate the one into the other.

From The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) by John Ruskin

Two gradated from separate high schools in the Grosse Pointe district: Brian Fraser, president of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and Arielle Anderson.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 14, 2023

Gail Shaw-Clemons makes monoprints of gradated colors and arranges them in two-ply stacks, with the top levels partly wound back or around to reveal the ones below.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022

He became a star running back in high school, gradated from UC Berkeley and earned his doctorate from Yale.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2022

The cover art features the two lawyers smiling blondly, superimposed over a baby-blue gradated background that looks a little like a sky.

From Slate ● Dec. 13, 2021

It is easy in this way to print a very delicately gradated tint from full colour to white.

From Wood-Block Printing A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice by F. Morley (Frank Morley) Fletcher

On Gabriel’s wings you can make out every last feather, gently gradating from green to gold to grapefruit pink.

From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2020

The practical principle employed in producing them is important, and consists in the blending and gradating by mixture, while we avoid the compounding of contrasting colours.

From Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists by Thomas Salter

The swinging lines should vary in thickness along their course, getting darker as they pass certain parts, and gradating into lighter lines at other parts according to the effect desired.

From The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

Nearly all expression of form, in drawing, depends on your power of gradating delicately; and the gradation is always most skilful which passes from one tint into another very little paler.

From The Crown of Wild Olive also Munera Pulveris; Pre-Raphaelitism; Aratra Pentelici; The Ethics of the Dust; Fiction, Fair and Foul; The Elements of Drawing by John Ruskin

Another very effective arrangement may be made by gradating a broad border from a white centre, through clear pinks on either side to bright scarlets, and ending at each extremity with deepest crimsons.

From Roses and Rose Growing by Rose Georgina Kingsley

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Just like flashcards, but way more fun

Don't take our word for it. Leave the boring studying behind and join VocabTrainer today. You'll learn even faster and never look back.

Take me to Vocabulary.com