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)
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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:
Instead of using cobalt or other radioactive materials, Wilson’s team uses an X-ray machine to irradiate the pests.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2024
As soon as the salts in the liquid have accumulated to a significant degree, the researchers irradiate the liquid with light.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 12, 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
If she was to be poor and miserable, to possess nothing she formerly owned; she would at least be beautiful, beautiful as the setting sun which irradiates everything with rosy light.
From On the Cross A Romance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau by Wilhelmine von Hillern
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
The irradiated vessels were towed to Hunters Point, and used as the material and hardware upon which scientists tested decontamination methods.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2025
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
A further calculation gave Seaborg pause: the irradiated uranium would be ferociously radioactive.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Herein, the mixing technique utilizes an ultrasonic phased array, which creates a focal point where droplets can float randomly via irradiating ultrasonic waves from a 7 × 7 grid of ultrasonic transducers with phase-shifting.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 17, 2023
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
On Peleliu, men fought in the irradiating heat and on coral, which made finding shelter well-nigh impossible.
From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2017
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.
