percolate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
percolates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
percolated,
past participle, past
-
percolating
present participle
-
to cause (a liquid) to pass through a porous body; filter.
-
(of a liquid) to filter through; permeate.
-
to brew (coffee) in a percolator.
verb (used without object)
-
percolates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
percolated,
past participle, past
-
percolating
present participle
-
to pass through a porous substance; filter; ooze; seep; trickle.
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to become percolated.
The coffee is starting to percolate.
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to become active, lively, or spirited.
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to show activity, movement, or life; grow or spread gradually; germinate.
Interest in the idea has begun to percolate.
noun
verb
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to cause (a liquid) to pass through a fine mesh, porous substance, etc, or (of a liquid) to pass through a fine mesh, porous substance, etc; trickle
rain percolated through the roof
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to permeate; penetrate gradually
water percolated the road
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informal (intr) to become active or lively
she percolated with happiness
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to make (coffee) or (of coffee) to be made in a percolator
noun
Pronunciation
The pronunciation of percolate as , with an intrusive y -glide, results from analogy with words like circulate and matriculate, where the unstressed vowel following the k -sound is symbolized by a u spelling, making the y -glide mandatory. In similar words where is followed by some other vowel, the represents a hypercorrection. The pronunciation of escalate as is another such example. See coupon, new.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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percolatesimple
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percolatessimple
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have percolatedperfect
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has percolatedperfect
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am percolatingprogressive
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are percolatingprogressive
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is percolatingprogressive
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have been percolatingperfect progressive
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has been percolatingperfect progressive
Past
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percolatedsimple
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had percolatedperfect
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was percolatingprogressive
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were percolatingprogressive
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had been percolatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of percolate
1620–30; < Latin percōlātus, past participle of percōlāre to filter. See per-, colander, -ate 1
Explanation
When something percolates, it spreads gradually. If the news of your victory in the spelling bee spread slowly through your entire school, you could sit back and enjoy watching it percolate. When a liquid percolates, it's filtered through something, and when an idea percolates, it's filtered through a group of people. Percolate often refers specifically to coffee, which is brewed by mixing ground coffee beans with hot water and filtering them through paper — in other words, coffee percolates. The Latin root is percolatus, which comes from per, or "through," plus colare, "to strain."
Vocabulary lists containing percolate
This Week in Pop Culture: December 29, 2018 - January 4, 2019
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2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
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This Week In Culture: August 1–6, 2020
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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:
What the API’s buyers get is the advantage of accessing those posts instantaneously, rather than waiting for them to percolate into the marketplace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
That focus will likely prove key if the current rotation deepens over the summer months as bond yields rise and inflation pressure percolate.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
But early in the year, core inflation excluding food and energy prices started to percolate, and the war with Iran has seemed to bring inflation to a boil.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
The stars of the Bravo reality series “Summer House” — where a group of friends spend their summer weekends in the Hamptons and drama ensues — were just letting the romance percolate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
It goes some way toward explaining how confidential information, rumors, and jokes percolate so rapidly through a population.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
"It's very much a wait to see how the removal of the tariffs percolates through the supply chain," he added.
From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026
“Liberation” percolates with lively humor, as when Lizzie introduces herself as a journalist who writes “obituaries and weddings—which in a way are the same thing.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2025
This happens because carbon dioxide from the air dissolves in rainwater to form carbonic acid - this then percolates through the rock and reacts with it, causing it to dissolve.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2025
Many areas in the parched West already use treated wastewater for outdoor irrigation or to replenish underground aquifers, where water is further cleansed as it percolates through the soil.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2023
My heart percolates and my hands begin to sweat.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
The fight percolated predictably from there, rising in intensity, until Jessica Tarlov—the liberal punching bag on Fox’s The Five—broke things up.
From Slate ● Nov. 19, 2025
News of the possible sale had percolated since last year, as Starbucks’ business in China faltered.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025
The amount of groundwater replenishment during the 2024 water year, while significant, was less than the 8.7 million acre-feet that percolated underground during the extremely wet 2023 water year, according to state estimates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025
In the decades since her pregnancy, the field of bipolar research and recommendations for treatment of pregnant and breastfeeding women have evolved, but experts say the information has not percolated through to all clinicians.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2024
As Linton was on his way to go talk to Daines, these things percolated.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Antipathy toward the earnings test, and a belief that the rule is outdated since so many older Americans need to work, is why legislation is percolating in Congress to repeal it.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
Even in the film’s most convoluted moments, there’s a fire of dissent percolating just beneath its surface.
From Salon ● May 22, 2026
With prices of derivative products such as jet fuel and liquefied natural gas also affected, the economic fallout is already percolating down—even for energy exporters such as the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
“Half His Age” first began percolating when McCurdy was 24, riding a bullet train on a solo trip in Japan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2026
But always percolating and demanding his attention was Charles’s species book.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
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.
