interrelate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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interrelates,
present (3rd person singular)
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interrelated,
past participle, past
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interrelating
present participle
verb
Usage
What does interrelate mean? When things interrelate, they are closely connected to each other and may affect each other. Such things can be described with the adjective interrelated. Interrelate can also mean to cause things to become connected in this way. Interrelate and interrelated are used in situations in which two or more elements strongly influence each other or are closely linked to each other. For example, a study on unemployment and crime in a particular area may conclude that they interrelate. Saying that two things interrelate does not necessarily mean that one causes the other or that they cause each other (though in some cases this may be true). The word interrelate is typically used in the discussion of complex topics, such as economics, science, and politics. These often involve situations in which multiple things are happening at the same time. Things that interrelate can impact each other or work together to affect something else. For example, the economy is affected by many factors that interrelate, such as employment, interest rates, and inflation. These and many other factors interrelate to determine the overall state of the economy. Example: The strength of the hurricane depends on how several factors interrelate, including temperature and air pressure.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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interrelatesimple
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interrelatessimple
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have interrelatedperfect
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has interrelatedperfect
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am interrelatingprogressive
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are interrelatingprogressive
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is interrelatingprogressive
-
have been interrelatingperfect progressive
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has been interrelatingperfect progressive
Past
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interrelatedsimple
-
had interrelatedperfect
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was interrelatingprogressive
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were interrelatingprogressive
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had been interrelatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of interrelate
First recorded in 1885–90; back formation from interrelated
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:
Ultimately, though, movies like these offer new shades not just of female-centered stories, but of how women can interrelate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2023
"We framed the story from a female perspective to get a better understanding of how gender inequality and climate vulnerability interrelate."
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2023
Each course has been prepared with care, though how those courses interrelate and whether they constitute a full meal is less certain.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
The firm helps agents access different databases, build profiles from disparate sources, from commercial data brokers to driver’s license records, and see how targets interrelate to each other.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2020
In humanistic nursing, phenomenological and existential currents interrelate.
From Humanistic Nursing by Josephine G. Paterson
"The whole organism is an integrated, complex morphology, and each of the individual pieces is interrelated to every other part in the body," Berv said.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026
Crude oil and refined oil have interrelated but distinct roles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
“It’s interrelated with the entire health care system,” Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a longtime pro-democracy voice, recently told MSNBC.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2025
It's an almost weekly occurrence because, since Rodri's injury, these two distinct but interrelated problems have infected every part of the pitch.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2025
The strongest push continues to be into rural areas, where the need for clean water, schools, employment, and housing is interrelated with health care.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
By the early 1970s we had developed a comprehensive program, interrelating the emerging minimal and conceptual artists from the United States with those in the United Kingdom and Europe.
From Forbes ● Oct. 11, 2012
SMT programs then work by interrelating the models of each language with one another.
From Slate ● May 11, 2012
A Rand specialty is a sophisticated application of "systems analysis," approaching highly complex projects by interrelating each constituent factor.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
