irradiate
Americanverb (used with object)
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irradiates,
present (3rd person singular)
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irradiated,
past participle, past
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irradiating
present participle
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to shed rays of light upon; illuminate.
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to illumine intellectually or spiritually.
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to brighten as if with light.
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to radiate (light, illumination, etc.).
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to heat with radiant energy.
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to treat by exposure to radiation, as of ultraviolet light.
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to expose to radiation.
verb (used without object)
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irradiates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
irradiated,
past participle, past
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irradiating
present participle
adjective
verb
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(tr) physics to subject to or treat with light or other electromagnetic radiation or with beams of particles
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(tr) to expose (food) to electromagnetic radiation to kill bacteria and retard deterioration
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(tr) to make clear or bright intellectually or spiritually; illumine
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a less common word for radiate
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obsolete (intr) to become radiant
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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irradiatornoun
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irradiativeadjective
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nonirradiatedadjective
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unirradiatedadjective
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unirradiativeadjective
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irradiatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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irradiatesimple
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irradiatessimple
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have irradiatedperfect
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has irradiatedperfect
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am irradiatingprogressive
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are irradiatingprogressive
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is irradiatingprogressive
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have been irradiatingperfect progressive
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has been irradiatingperfect progressive
Past
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irradiatedsimple
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had irradiatedperfect
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was irradiatingprogressive
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were irradiatingprogressive
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had been irradiatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of irradiate
1595–1605; < Latin irradiātus, past participle of irradiāre to shine upon. See ir- 1, radiate
Vocabulary lists containing irradiate
Nuclear Processes
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Physics - High School
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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:
Eradication was possible through the sterile insect technique, which uses gamma radiation to irradiate screwworm pupae and create sterile male flies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
The NIF used indirect drive to irradiate a capsule with X-rays using about 2,000 kilojoules of laser energy.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 5, 2024
Inexplicable fires first obliterate Japanese freighters and irradiate fish, a ripped-from-the-headlines echo of the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident—a Japanese tuna ship showered in radioactive fallout from the Castle Bravo thermonuclear test at Bikini Atoll.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 3, 2023
But thanks to a $14 million grant from the Department of Defense, the refurbished K-500 will irradiate chips to see how they perform under challenging conditions resembling those in space.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 12, 2023
All his work since then had culminated in a factory that could irradiate two hundred tons of uranium at a time to produce a half pound of plutonium every two hundred days.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
In one of the experimental approaches, the cemented carbide rod leads the direction of fabrication while the laser directly irradiates the top of the rod.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2026
Rebecca understood that while regular radiation irradiates all the tissue it travels through, proton therapy delivers the full dose to the tumor and then it stops.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2019
The French conductor’s luminous elegance irradiates Menuhin’s intense humanity; there’s nothing else quite like it in the extensive discographies of either artist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2016
Heeger’s team irradiates the fibroblasts to prevent them from replicating during this process.
From Nature ● May 9, 2016
She was always pleasant to look on, but it was often like contemplating ideal beauty in an animated statue—Now she is the image of perfect happiness, and irradiates all around her.
From Gryll Grange by Thomas Love Peacock
Vector control districts serving Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties have irradiated males and released them in recent years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Those molecules change shape when irradiated by the sun, flexing into a strained version of their regular form.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
The fruit, after being harvested, must be irradiated at one of a handful of certified government facilities in India, inspected by a U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
As Bonlieu toiled away in Auckland, Warrior crew members were moving a community of cancer-stricken Marshall Islanders, ignored by the American government that had irradiated their atoll, to a new home.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025
From the slugs of irradiated uranium, fissile plutonium would be extracted at a second plant ten miles away, eventually to be sent on its way to Los Alamos.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
New research demonstrates that fast electronic processes can be probed by irradiating the materials with ions first.
From Science Daily ● May 17, 2024
Biologists are irradiating thousands of male mosquitoes in labs, to be released later, in the hope that their offspring will be unviable because of DNA damage.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2023
Researchers in China have tried irradiating peanut extracts with gamma rays to make them less allergenic.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2016
Historical explanations included some kind of disease, or the drying up of inland seas putting stress on the dinosaur population, or a supernova irradiating the Earth.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 11, 2014
Plastic is the new protector; we wrap the already plastic tumblers of hotels in more plastic, and seal the toilet seats like state secrets after irradiating them with ultraviolet light.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
