legislate
Americanverb (used without object)
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legislates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
legislated,
past participle, past
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legislating
present participle
verb (used with object)
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legislates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
legislated,
past participle, past
-
legislating
present participle
verb
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(intr) to make or pass laws
-
(tr) to bring into effect by legislation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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legislatesimple
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legislatessimple
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have legislatedperfect
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has legislatedperfect
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am legislatingprogressive
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are legislatingprogressive
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is legislatingprogressive
-
have been legislatingperfect progressive
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has been legislatingperfect progressive
Past
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legislatedsimple
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had legislatedperfect
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was legislatingprogressive
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were legislatingprogressive
-
had been legislatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of legislate
First recorded in 1710–20; back formation from legislation, legislator
Explanation
To legislate is to make laws. If you thought there should be a law that all money should be pink instead of green, you might write to your congresswoman with a suggestion to legislate your idea. Formal government bodies legislate. So, while you might create a rule at home to ban phone calls at dinner, the House of Representatives would legislate communication regulations during meals. Legislate may seem like a tricky word, but you can easily remember the meaning if you notice that the word begins with the same leg as the word legal does; both words relate to the law.
Vocabulary lists containing legislate
100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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Iroquois Constitution
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Word Generation Weekly - Series 2
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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:
And while US states can legislate for restaurant workers to be paid more, tips are seen by the US government as a core - and expected - component of such employees' income.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
If bondholders are going to legislate good borrower behavior via debt contracts, why stop at transparency?
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
They’ve packed town halls, prompted state and local political leaders to legislate limits on their growth or even to ban them.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
“You can’t legislate that, you can’t mandate it, but I think if you ask people, ‘Could we be better?’—I think you won’t get a better result unless you make the ask.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026
And the failure of Prohibition would provide the nation with a powerful lesson in the pitfalls of attempting to legislate morality.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
The General Assembly legislates for a narrowly politically divided state of some 8.7 million people and considers thousands of bills in sessions scheduled for at most 60 days in even-numbered years, less in odd-numbered years.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
First, it legislates more than mere time, place and manner restrictions.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2023
One of Ms Forbes' rivals for the leadership, Humza Yousaf, is a Muslim but he insists his faith does not dictate how he legislates.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2023
Bonds said it’s crucial for lawmakers to get feedback from Ward-level legislators, who often hear direct feedback from their constituents, before noting that advocates often impact how the council legislates.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2022
But we contended, that the sanctity of an act is to be deduced from the sanctity of the subjects for which it legislates.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844 by Various
It was legislated to continue for at least three years, through 2027.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
The ban was first announced in December 2024, and legislated in April.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
“The implementation of these standards will deliver a simple, consistent regulatory framework for large data centers and AI training and be the first to be legislated by a government worldwide,” Albanese said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The White House’s plan “may represent a policy opening” that “could evolve into a legislated, progressive, and secure universal system,” said Wealth Equity Lab’s Ghilarducci in the statement.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
It had been legislated and regulated to at least seem fair.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Decades ago they started outsourcing to executive-branch agencies the task of nitty-gritty legislating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
The Irish government has warned that it is considering legislating in the absence of an EU decision.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
This week marks the eighth anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and allowed states to begin legislating sports betting.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
Labour has so far stopped short of legislating for such a ban, although it has said it is reviewing guidance that allows individual headteachers to ban the devices.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2025
On Friday, the thirteenth of February 2009, at 2:15 p.m., after a long week of legislating, the Utah House of Representatives met to discuss texting and driving.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
