locate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
locates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
located,
past participle, past
-
locating
present participle
-
to identify or discover the place or location of.
to locate the bullet wound.
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to set, fix, or establish in a position, situation, or locality; place; settle.
to locate our European office in Paris.
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to assign or ascribe a particular location to (something), as by knowledge or opinion.
Some scholars locate the Garden of Eden in Babylonia.
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to survey and enter a claim to a tract of land; take possession of land.
verb (used without object)
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locates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
located,
past participle, past
-
locating
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to discover the position, situation, or whereabouts of; find
-
(tr; often passive) to situate or place
located on the edge of the city
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(intr) to become established or settled
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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locaternoun
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prelocateverb
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interlocateverb (used with object)
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locatableadjective
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self-locatingadjective
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unlocatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
locatesimple
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locatessimple
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have locatedperfect
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has locatedperfect
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am locatingprogressive
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are locatingprogressive
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is locatingprogressive
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have been locatingperfect progressive
-
has been locatingperfect progressive
Past
-
locatedsimple
-
had locatedperfect
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was locatingprogressive
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were locatingprogressive
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had been locatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of locate
An Americanism first recorded in 1645–55; from Latin locātus “placed,” past participle of locāre “to put in a given position, place,” verb derivative of locus “a place”; see locus
Explanation
If you wanted to decide where to locate your car wash, you might locate a spot on a map with lots of traffic, a parking lot, and a ready source of water. Locate means to find or place. If your mother can never locate her keys, it means she loses them all of the time and has to look all around the house before going out. If you move to a new place, usually for a job, you relocate. But if you decide to find a job that is located in your town, you call that staying local, which, like locate, derives from the Latin locus meaning "place."
Vocabulary lists containing locate
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Vocabulary of the Common Core
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Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1, Words 51-60
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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:
Updates were shared with police in a group chat, helping Austrian officers locate and arrest the suspect.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
Remote and difficult terrain complicates fieldwork, while the seasonal appearance and often hidden nature of fungal reproductive structures make some species especially difficult to locate.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
It added inquiries were ongoing to locate Barzai's next-of-kin.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
But for listeners who’ve been to Scotland, it can be hard to locate the Scottish people anywhere in his Scottish works.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
“I’m calling security. I’ll have them locate her by her badge.”
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
When a store puts in an order, a robot locates the correct bin, grabs the tote using extendable metal arms and carries it to a glass elevator that delivers the item to a human.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Ms Wall locates the former burial sites using press images, local stories and flowers left on posts but said she had learnt to identify “very clear signs”.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2024
He still lives in Seattle, consults for transportation clients, and joined the board of a company that locates underground utility obstacles, like those which delayed the new Tacoma Link Hilltop Extension streetcar.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2024
The section of “Mandate for Leadership” dedicated to laying out a program for the future Trump Justice Department locates the discussion of the federal death penalty in a broad but familiar context.
From Slate ● May 14, 2024
If she locates us before we make it to the settlement, who knows how the Collective will punish him.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
These cells are located in the cerebral cortex, the outer region of the brain involved in complex functions such as perception, reasoning, and decision-making.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2026
The plant, to be located in Fort Worth, Texas, would have the capacity to build tens of thousands of aircraft each year, Wing said Friday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
The move however fueled speculation that Trump could be preparing further work on the West Wing, after several hints that he could move reporters out of the famed briefing room located near the Oval.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Officers located and detained Stein in the area, and after a search, found a mini camera that had been discarded in a nearby trash can, police said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
The Three Lions Inn was located in the Madeleine neighborhood of Paris where two roads intersected at sharp angles, making the building wedge-shaped like a four-story slice of cake.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
In some cases, child protection teams succeed in locating relatives, even distant family members, who can care for orphaned children.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
Working with Professor Yi Chen's group at Vanderbilt University, the researchers realized they could use Z bosons as a "tag" for locating and measuring wakes created by individual quarks.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
The academic added that locating data centres in "the most sensible places" could mitigate how big those impacts are by using more wind energy.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
“Without locating and examining the animal,” she said, “we can’t determine what may have caused the reported aggressive behavior.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
They had no way of locating the Doors.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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