locate
Americanverb (used with object)
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locates,
present (3rd person singular)
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located,
past participle, past
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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
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(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
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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
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has been locatingperfect progressive
Past
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locatedsimple
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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:
There, doctors use ultrasounds to locate where the pregnancy has implanted.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
Besides showing residents' grassroots efforts, such as sophisticated tracking systems to locate ICE teams, it was essential that the 25-minute film also include the "immigrant perspective", Mueller said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
One of the hottest new smartphone apps in Russia is a crowdsourced tool to help drivers locate gas stations with available fuel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
Older mice often need more time to locate the platform, reflecting the decline in learning and memory that can accompany aging.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
Or the decision to locate the national capital on the Potomac was a backroom deal involving so many secret bargains and bribes that no one would ever unravel the full story.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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
Orienting herself from there, she locates another, gently pushing open the paper door to find a ring of tiny chairs representing her own performance space.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Reddit users tend to be younger, are more likely to be male, and are disproportionately located in the United States.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
Ushuaia is already home to a more centrally located naval facility established in 1950, the Admiral Berisso Base, a staging point for Antarctic expeditions.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
The newsroom’s previous home base is a historic 1935 Art Deco landmark located in downtown Los Angeles, the neighborhood where The Times operated for 137 years since its founding in 1881.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
At the time, it was located at 120 Wall Street — just blocks away from the World Trade Center.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
The neighborhood of Key West where the cigar factories were located was called Gatoville.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
Even so, locating treatment-resistant regions that already exist inside tumors and understanding the cells that support them could eventually help researchers develop more effective combinations of cancer therapies.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026
"When Microsoft and Amazon do business here in NSW, it's pleasing to see they are committed to providing some of their more skilled operations and locating them here," he says.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
“Rhoda the unflappable,” as Leonie thinks of her, makes short work of locating her quarry in a run-down villa on the small Maltese island of Gozo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
"Our focus will be on locating the victims who are buried under the rubble" said Fathur, adding the rescue effort had been complicated by landslides cutting off several roads.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
“Your grandmother might refuse my help. She and your grandfather have never held me in much esteem. But if she will accept my assistance in locating Stan, I will give it.”
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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.
