designate
Americanverb (used with object)
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designates,
present (3rd person singular)
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designated,
past participle, past
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designating
present participle
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to mark or point out; indicate; show; specify.
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to denote; indicate; signify.
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to name; entitle; style.
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to nominate or select for a duty, office, purpose, etc.; appoint; assign.
adjective
verb
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to indicate or specify
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to give a name to; style; entitle
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to select or name for an office or duty; appoint
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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designatornoun
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dedesignateverb (used with object)
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redesignateverb (used with object)
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designativeadjective
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designatoryadjective
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nondesignateadjective
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nondesignativeadjective
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undesignatedadjective
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undesignativeadjective
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well-designatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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designatesimple
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designatessimple
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have designatedperfect
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has designatedperfect
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am designatingprogressive
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are designatingprogressive
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is designatingprogressive
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have been designatingperfect progressive
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has been designatingperfect progressive
Past
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designatedsimple
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had designatedperfect
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was designatingprogressive
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were designatingprogressive
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had been designatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of designate
1640–50; < Latin dēsignātus, past participle of dēsignāre. See design, -ate 1
Explanation
To designate is to give something a specific status. If you designate your house an opera-free zone, it means that you've officially declared that no opera is allowed to be played there. To give a person or thing an official status is to designate it as something, like when you designate a meeting place if members of your group get lost at the amusement park. Sometimes, it can carry responsibility or an assignment, like when your teammates designate you as the captain. It can also show a category, like when you designate certain books to the humor section of the bookstore where you work.
Vocabulary lists containing designate
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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:
They can also designate an entire area a face mask-free zone for the duration of a protest.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
They’ve already succeeded in convincing the government to designate the Vjosa Narta river area as a national park.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
The third requires the government to consider economic and national security tradeoffs when deciding whether to designate a particular area as "critical habitat."
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
If you don’t know who to designate, the first thing to think about is who your state would pick if you don’t decide.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
Christian mystics devoted much energy to deciphering the number 666, said by John the Apostle to designate the name of the Beast of the Apocalypse, the Antichrist.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Known as the Record of Emergency Data, this form designates that beneficiaries get $100,000 tax-free cash and any unreceived payments after a servicemember dies.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
China’s latest Five-Year Plan explicitly designates it as one of seven “future industries” set to drive national growth.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
The case stems from a broader legal dispute over the renaming of the cultural institution, which US law designates as a memorial to President John F Kennedy.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
An uncritical viewing designates this as another “all’s well that ends well” gag.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2026
Goss used the pronoun that designates a male animal, not the pronoun for a human being in the masculine role of kemmer.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Earlier this week, police removed authorisation for Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Roberts moved designated hitter Shohei Ohtani down to sixth in the batting order, and put catcher Will Smith behind him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
Disagreements within the Tata Group have been simmering since the death of former chairman Ratan Tata - Noel Tata's half-brother who designated him successor after his death - in 2024.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
To celebrate Morris’s return, the town’s mayor officially designated Sept. 14 as Morris the Cat Day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Perhaps so, but he fled the Chanka attack with three of his four sons, including his designated successor, Inka Urqon.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
These are mostly the same issues that sank previous rounds, including a cap on plastic production, mention of human health, and designating problematic plastic products or chemicals of concern.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Deukmejian vetoed the bill, though Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in 2024 designating the slimy yellow creature as the official state slug.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
That included designating Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, which restricts foreign direct investment, global trade and access to the world’s financial system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
In 2025, the Onion ran a spoof headline imagining the State Department designating the league a terrorist organization.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
It contained his own notes on Spassky’s games, jotted in pencil, with comments and question marks designating poor moves, exclamation marks designating good ones.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
