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ovulate

American  
[ov-yuh-layt, oh-vyuh-layt-] / ˈɒv jəˌleɪt, ˈoʊ vjəˌleɪt- /

verb (used without object)

Biology.
  • ovulates,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • ovulated,
    past participle,  past
  • ovulating
    present participle
  1. to produce and discharge eggs from an ovary or ovarian follicle.


ovulate British  
/ ˈɒvjʊˌleɪt /

verb

  1. (intr) to produce or discharge eggs from an ovary

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

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Inflected Forms

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Conjugated Forms

Present

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Etymology

Origin of ovulate

First recorded in 1860–65; ovule + -ate 1


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:

Among the findings, the atlas reveals that roughly one hour before an egg is released, the follicles undergo an additional layer of selection to determine which ones will ovulate.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 23, 2024

In some cases the ovaries may intermittently “wake up” and ovulate, meaning that some women with primary ovarian insufficiency may still get pregnant.

From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2022

These rodents are normally too old to reproduce, but the medication enabled more than half of them to ovulate, the team reports today in Science Advances.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 16, 2022

First, female pandas only ovulate once a year, according to Vice Motherboard.

From Fox News ● Apr. 9, 2020

Approximately 100 to 300 million sperm are produced each day, whereas women typically ovulate only one oocyte per month.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

In theory, the body ovulates most regularly and reliably if someone is not over- or underweight, said Jessica Chan, a reproductive endocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024

While it is uncommon, a young girl can get pregnant even before her first period, specifically when she ovulates for the first time — which is usually about 14 days before her first menstrual period.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2022

As a human who ovulates and dates, I find the birth control offerings most intriguing—and in my opinion, birth control is in a different ethical order from some of the other medicines.

From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2019

In the days or weeks before she ovulates, a woman’s BBT will usually hover between 36.1C and 36.5C.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2016

Darcy ovulates every 28 days, and Raul’s sperm count is normal.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

The third cycle, in January 2024, was a wash—she ovulated earlier than her medical team expected.

From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2025

The newest health sensor on the Apple Watch Series 8 is a temperature monitor that will initially be used to estimate when someone ovulated.

From The Verge ● Sep. 9, 2022

Again, the drug provided a reproductive jolt, nearly doubling the number of eggs the animals ovulated.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 16, 2022

The researchers then had the female rabbits mate with a single male—named Frank—and measured the number of times the females ovulated.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 30, 2019

Corpora albicantia remain on the ovary until April of the year following ovulation but disappear in May and are never present after the new set of eggs is ovulated.

From Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata Agassiz by John M. Legler

"If you're not ovulating you can't have a baby. You can't conceive because there's no egg being released," says Dr O'Donnell.

From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2024

The process doesn’t require a patient to be ovulating, like egg freezing does, which means a patient doesn’t have to undergo hormone treatments.

From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2024

These apps allow users to record the dates of their menstrual cycles and get predictions about when they are ovulating and most fertile.

From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2022

Scientists have some idea how fraternal twins, which result when two eggs are fertilized, happen: Both genetics and age may tip ovulating women toward producing two or more eggs at once.

From Science Magazine ● Sep. 28, 2021

In the mildest cases hemorrhage may not actually take place unless the patients be non-gravid females within the ovulating limits of life.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

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