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Synonyms

locate

American

[loh-keyt, loh-keyt] / ˈloʊ keɪt, loʊˈkeɪt /

verb (used with object)

to identify or discover the place or location of.

to locate the bullet wound.
to set, fix, or establish in a position, situation, or locality; place; settle.

to locate our European office in Paris.
to assign or ascribe a particular location to (something), as by knowledge or opinion.

Some scholars locate the Garden of Eden in Babylonia.
to survey and enter a claim to a tract of land; take possession of land.

verb (used without object)

to establish one's business or residence in a place; settle.

locate British

/ ləʊˈkeɪt /

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
(intr) to become established or settled

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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."

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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.

The opposition’s manifesto was so long they built an A.I. chatbot on their website to help you locate which of the 1,000 promises personally applied to you.

From Slate • Jun. 6, 2026

The Comanche Circle project was attempting to locate next to their property.

From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026

Ships can’t see one another or locate themselves on electronic charts, and instead rely on radar to navigate, which is reliable but requires an experienced person at the helm, seafarers said.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026

To help locate and protect similar nesting sites, Danforth and his colleagues have launched a global citizen science initiative encouraging people to report ground nesting bee aggregations they encounter.

From Science Daily • May 28, 2026

“The Triangle Shirtwaist factory went up fast. You need to locate Agent Chris and get back as quickly as possible.”

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023