locate
Americanverb (used with object)
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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)
verb
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(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:
Despite a search of the park with helicopters equipped with heat-detection cameras, police were not able to locate the suspect in the immediate aftermath.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
The result shows that astronomers can locate worlds by identifying the molecular fingerprints of their atmospheres instead of depending entirely on traditional coronagraphic imaging.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
A U.S. judge signed the arrest warrants Saturday, and U.S. marshals were able to locate the brothers through social media.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
With the help of a drone, firefighters say they were able to locate the tiny pup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
Half of the postmark—the half we need to locate Mom—is missing.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Where “Neon Summer Skin” locates it in the invincible abandon of a day at the pool, “Canopies” finds it in the paradox of protection through separation and the bond capable of surviving it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 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
Another early highlight, Reliquia, chops and splices a chamber quartet into unrecognisable electronic patterns, as Rosalía reconciles herself to the idea that she loves too hard, and locates the beauty in that vulnerability.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 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
Crouching in the lee of what was a tourist gift shop—a few souvenir plates in their racks, each with a different name painted on the rim and arranged alphabetically—Werner locates himself in the city.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
These animals also performed worse on tasks that tested their ability to remember where food had been located.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
Police and firefighters are investigating the scene at Nippon Paper Industries Yatsushiro Plant, which is located in Yatsushiro City in the wider Kumamoto prefecture, says the outlet.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
The project is located on a decommissioned uranium-enrichment site on federal land in southern Ohio, and the campus would require 10 gigawatts of electricity.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
The two buildings, located in the cities of Belem and Manaus respectively, are a legacy of the Amazon region's "Golden Age," the United Nations agency said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
It’s located between the only other two buildings in the tiny downtown area of Fairbank—a rickety ice cream shack and Big Ed’s General Store.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
"Hand-eye coordination, tracking and locating balls, leaping down low or up high, and attacking the ball at corner kicks, that translates very well," Traore says.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Det Insp Justin Thomas asked for the public's help in locating Sakyi.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
United States, a 2018 case involving cellphone tower locating data, Chatrie made clear that the third-party doctrine just doesn’t make sense when it comes to smartphone data privacy.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
“While many vines have been intercepted and destroyed, locating the thousands that may still be in customers’ hands remains our top priority,” said California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross in a press release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
He was also interested in locating and charting ancient shipwrecks along the Turkish coast.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
