populate
Americanverb (used with object)
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populates,
present (3rd person singular)
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populated,
past participle, past
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populating
present participle
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to inhabit; live in; be the inhabitants of.
Almost 2 million people populate the immediate area of the factory and were exposed to potential carcinogens.
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to furnish with inhabitants, as by colonization; people.
In the 1700s, the British government populated the colony of New South Wales with convicts.
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Digital Technology. to fill (a digital document): She’s a fantastic photographer who has populated her blog with beautiful images.
The survey results will populate the spreadsheet as soon as they are submitted online.
She’s a fantastic photographer who has populated her blog with beautiful images.
verb
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(often passive) to live in; inhabit
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to provide a population for; colonize or people
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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outpopulateverb (used with object)
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repopulateverb (used with object)
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underpopulateverb (used with object)
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superpopulatedadjective
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unpopulatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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populatesimple
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populatessimple
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have populatedperfect
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has populatedperfect
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am populatingprogressive
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are populatingprogressive
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is populatingprogressive
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have been populatingperfect progressive
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has been populatingperfect progressive
Past
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populatedsimple
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had populatedperfect
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was populatingprogressive
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were populatingprogressive
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had been populatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of populate
First recorded in 1570–80; from Medieval Latin populātus, past participle of populāre “to populate, inhabit”; see people, -ate 1
Explanation
When people live in or occupy a country, city, or town, they populate it. It doesn’t always refer to people — bugs might populate your kitchen if you leave half-eaten food out. If your family lives alone on an island, you're the only people who populate it. You can also use this verb to mean "be present in," so you might say that vampires populate your favorite books, or that animated characters populate most of the movies you watch. Populate also means "fill in" in computing: "Will you populate that spreadsheet with data?" The Latin populus, or "people," is at the root of populate.
Vocabulary lists containing populate
The Origins of Civilization, Lessons 3–5
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popul (people)
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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:
If so, the Saguaro could offer an important link between the large population of little red dots Webb sees at high redshift and the galaxies that populate the more recent universe.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Zoos, according to the reporting here, were more than happy to populate their exhibits with the rarest reptiles, whether they were smuggled in or not.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
In fact, daemons of all stripes populate the series – and always in pairs.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
These haters would be his primary constituents and populate his brain trust if he wins.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Oh, we can populate the dark with horrors, even we who think ourselves informed and sure, believing nothing we cannot measure or weigh.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
One simple Google search of the laptop populates a collection of rave reviews from people who have gotten their hands on the device before it officially becomes available on Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026
Ms. Doucet populates the book with sympathetic characters—the “real cement and steel of the Inter-Con”—conscientious and kind Afghans who keep the hotel going as regimes collapse, rulers change, mores alter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
He populates his posts with a colorful cast of celebrities: actors like Tim Allen and Whoopi Goldberg or musicians like Jason Aldean and Kid Rock.
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2024
“Oppenheimer” sticks almost entirely to its protagonist’s point of view yet also populates its three-hour film with an incredible array of faces, all in exquisite detail.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 19, 2023
I'm a barrister—briefless—the type of barrister that populates the Temple and all those places.
From Sally Bishop A Romance by E. Temple (Ernest Temple) Thurston
The federal government owns about 28% of the nation’s land, much of it in the sparsely populated West.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the phenomenon was caused by "severe" thunderstorms and that it was "very uncommon to see one in such a populated place".
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
London looks great; crowd scenes are well populated; chaos is properly chaotic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
That includes eruptions from volcanoes that continue to pose risks to heavily populated regions around Mexico City, Naples and Yogyakarta in Indonesia.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Approaching what is now the Peru- Brazil border, he noted that “the farther we went the more thickly populated and the better did we find the land.”
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
"Yes. There's a Catholic priest there who seems to be populating the whole country with redundant British and American organs."
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026
This is how the scores of docuseries and podcasts populating the genre transform actual horror into digestible content.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026
Suddenly, most of the major groups of animals alive today -- including vertebrates which would eventually include humans -- evolved and started populating the world's oceans.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
Hyams said the Ralph Lauren Christmas images populating social media fuel her generation’s desire for nostalgia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025
Because of their key role in establishing and populating a colony, settlers may be called colonizers.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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.
