insinuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to suggest or hint slyly.
He insinuated that they were lying.
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to instill or infuse subtly or artfully, as into the mind.
to insinuate doubts through propaganda.
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to bring or introduce into a position or relation by indirect or artful methods.
to insinuate oneself into favor.
verb (used without object)
verb
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(may take a clause as object) to suggest by indirect allusion, hints, innuendo, etc
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(tr) to introduce subtly or deviously
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(tr) to cause (someone, esp oneself) to be accepted by gradual approaches or manoeuvres
Related Words
See hint.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of insinuate
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin insinuātus, past participle of insinuāre “to work in, instill.” See in- 2, sinuous, -ate 1
Explanation
Insinuate means you imply or suggest something that may or may not be true. If you say things seemed to go wrong about the time your brother took over, you insinuate that he had something to do with the decline. There's another way to insinuate. Suppose you're in line to get into a popular dance club when a celebrity appears, surrounded by a big entourage. If you strike up a conversation with one of the entourage, you may be able to insinuate that you're part of the group and go in with them. Don't feel bad — people have been doing it at least since the 1520s, when insinuate evolved from the Latin word insinuare, meaning "wind one's way into."
Vocabulary lists containing insinuate
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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.
Her tales defy easy categorization—suspense shockers? ghost stories? horror sketches?—even as they insinuate themselves into our souls.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
No one required Rodgers to publicly insinuate, without a single shred of merit, that late night host Jimmy Kimmel is a sex criminal.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2024
The term had long been used in Haitian street slang to insinuate male dominance and power.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 12, 2023
The messages on her album and their visual analogs are accomplices in this subtle cultural tyranny but they also at least insinuate a desire to be subversive, to break the curse of complicity.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 1, 2023
“How dare you insinuate that my late wife would talk to you, a pale imitation, rather than to her own husband? How dare you talk to me about hope when hope died with her?”
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
