predispose
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to give an inclination or tendency to beforehand; make susceptible.
Genetic factors may predispose human beings to certain metabolic diseases.
- Synonyms:
- prepare, prearrange
-
to render subject, susceptible, or liable.
The evidence predisposes him to public censure.
-
to dispose beforehand.
-
Archaic. to dispose of beforehand, as in a will, legacy, or the like.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to incline or make (someone) susceptible to something beforehand
-
law to dispose of (property, etc) beforehand; bequeath
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
predisposesimple
-
predisposessimple
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have predisposedperfect
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has predisposedperfect
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am predisposingprogressive
-
are predisposingprogressive
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is predisposingprogressive
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have been predisposingperfect progressive
-
has been predisposingperfect progressive
Past
-
predisposedsimple
-
had predisposedperfect
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was predisposingprogressive
-
were predisposingprogressive
-
had been predisposingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of predispose
Explanation
Predispose means to have a tendency toward something. Some people believe that just being born in Canada will predispose you to love ice hockey. Many situations or events can predispose you to have a particular reaction, opinion, or feeling. Being bitten by a dog as a child could predispose you to having a fear of dogs. Having ancestors with great athletic ability might predispose you to enjoy running. If you want to predispose your father to liking your new boyfriend, be sure to tell him about volunteering at the food bank and leave out the bits about his arrest and dropping out of school.
Vocabulary lists containing predispose
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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:
Recognizing this, some oncologists have begun administering drugs with restraint rather than abandon, aiming to keep the cancer in check rather than creating conditions that predispose to the rapid growth of resistant cells.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
"The whole team undertakes a standardized warm-up that addresses a number of physical concerns that predispose our female athletes to ACLs," she said.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2025
Nothing in her environment would predispose her to cancer, except for being in close proximity to the fires.
From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2025
It was a pretty standard effort to identify people whose views might predispose them against their client’s contentions.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2024
Attitudes such as these certainly predispose one to innumeracy.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Nor does it hurt that the extraordinary popularity of the Harry Potter movies predisposes much of the audience to sympathy and affection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
This predisposes them to developing the disease but in itself is not symptomatic.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 2024
"Pollutants make you more allergic in general and this can trigger eczema, being an allergic individual predisposes you to developing eczema compared with a non-allergic person."
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2023
People with two copies of the APOE4 gene, which predisposes to Alzheimer’s, may be at higher risk of ARIA.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 6, 2023
The weakness of mind that predisposes to this may be inherent or acquired.
From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
"Exosomes are used to communicate with and activate surrounding cells, and we have now identified a defect in both the production and the quality of exosomes in cells that we know are predisposed to Alzheimer's."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2025
She underwent two DNA tests at the University of Washington to see if she had any genes that might have predisposed her.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2025
Wojcicki said inquiries poured into 23andMe in 2015 after actor Angelina Jolie disclosed that she’d undergone a precautionary double mastectomy upon learning she carried a gene that predisposed her to breast cancer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2025
And to be fair, that’s not a bad courtroom strategy against an opponent who is almost pathologically predisposed to putting his foot in his mouth.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2025
Or was he more or less predisposed than the rest of us to lose his focus, take his eyes from the road, fiddle with his phone?
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Selenium itself is an oxidant, but in low doses it activates responses in a controlled manner, predisposing the body to better defense.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2023
But a recent study suggested that the risk of so-called long COVID-19 is highest among people with one of four predisposing factors, including Type 2 diabetes and the presence of autoantibodies.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 4, 2022
“Climate change is predisposing the fuels into drier conditions,” Stephens said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2020
A growing number of scientists suggest that the changes in the Arctic will have an impact on the globe’s far more populous mid-latitudes by predisposing the atmosphere to extreme weather events.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2017
Was there anything about the Chinese environment predisposing toward Confucian philosophy and cultural conservatism, which may also have profoundly affected history?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
