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.
-
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)
-
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
-
locatesimple
-
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
-
locatedsimple
-
had locatedperfect
-
was locatingprogressive
-
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:
It added inquiries were ongoing to locate Barzai's next-of-kin.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
The park was excavated as part of a 500-day national drive launched in March, touted as Vietnam's largest push to locate some of the hundreds of thousands missing since the war.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
By searching for these signatures, astronomers can locate galaxy clusters that might otherwise be difficult to detect.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
Developed during Albuquerque’s 2026 fellowship sponsored by the organization, “The Interval Between Things” continues her investigation of how people locate themselves within the landscape and the larger universe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
“Hello?” he called, walking to the front desk, where the ditzy receptionist answered phones, checked in families, and located, or failed to locate, packages.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Kim locates an inner confidence in early home videos of Lisa competing in talent shows, drawing parallels between that precocious seven-year-old and the young woman who is gradually reclaiming her agency.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
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
When a male locates a female tarantula, he “initiates a courtship ritual involving rhythmic tapping and vibration to signal his presence and avoid predation,” McCamish said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2025
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
Once he locates one, he sits down at the table in the kitchen to write a note to his parents.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
In his refrigerated warehouses, located right up against the border wall -- in an area through which dozens of trucks pass -- Mario Jauregui is fed up with "always playing the guessing game."
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
Bonta alleges in the lawsuit that defendants have “repeatedly, consistently, and pervasively failed to lawfully manage hazardous waste” at the landfill located on Henry Mayo Drive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
To investigate this puzzle, scientists focused on cardiolipin, a specialized fat molecule located almost exclusively within the inner membrane of mitochondria.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026
A commentator for Sky later said police had located the drone operator.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
Now that people knew where the plane was located, they had to figure out how to get to it on the ground.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Students spent weeks searching library catalogs, locating journal articles, reading books, organizing notes, developing arguments, drafting and revising.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
If a patient has an antibody against an antigen carried by nearly everyone else, locating compatible donor blood can require specialized laboratories, rare donor registries and sometimes international cooperation.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 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
Pabst Brewing Company has turned to social media for help locating thousands of cans of its Blue Ribbon beer taken from a distribution centre in California.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
They made locating calls to keep track of one another, and Otto would hesitantly call back, though not loud enough for anyone but me to hear.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
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