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
According to the NRC, embrittlement occurs as a result of reactor operation when neutrons from the nuclear fuel irradiate the steel plates and welds used to construct the reactor vessel.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
Fie continued to provide Segre with metal scraps and even acceded to Segre’s request to irradiate a quantity of uranium oxide mailed from Italy so that he could continue searching for nuclear reactions.
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
Over everything there seemed to rest a shimmer of that serene, unconscious peace which irradiates a pure maiden's soul.
From The Wish A Novel by Hermann Sudermann
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
Curtis makes his living as a Hollywood screenwriter, penning B-horror movies filled with irradiated mutants and monsters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
It not only tells how much radiation an object gives off, but also how hot an object gets when irradiated with a given amount of energy.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Although a disk herniation definitely can be a possible cause of pain irradiating in the leg, it is only rarely a cause of local back pain.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 21, 2023
This was achieved by irradiating the film with an optical vortex, resulting in prints of exceptional positional accuracy at the micrometer scale.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2023
He also appeared to propose irradiating patients' bodies with UV light, an idea dismissed by a doctor at the briefing.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2020
The trick of irradiating and releasing millions of male flies is older and more widespread than the article reported, however.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 14, 2019
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.
