potentiate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause to be potent; make powerful.
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to increase the effectiveness of; intensify.
verb
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to cause to be potent
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med to increase (the individual action or effectiveness) of two drugs by administering them in combination with each other
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of potentiate
1810–20; < Latin potenti ( a ) power ( see potency) + -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.
He said: "In the scientific literature there are some reported synergies between viral respiratory infections, for example, flu and meningococcal infections as the viral infections may potentiate the spread."
From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026
"By building the right immune infrastructure inside tumors, we can potentiate the patient's own defenses -- both T cell and B cell arms -- against cancer growth, relapse, and metastasis."
From Science Daily • Oct. 15, 2025
This prompted a Hebbian model in which ‘fear cells’ with co-active inputs conveying the paired CS–US presentations potentiate their responses to subsequent CS presentations1, 3, 5.
From Nature • Mar. 21, 2017
And I think there are also conditions to modernize, to update and to find more advantages, so that it will potentiate shared common possibilities that we, the three partners, the three strategic partners have.
From Time • Jul. 22, 2016
It's clean enough to ask any potentiate of Europe to eat off'n any spot in it.
From Vacation with the Tucker Twins by Speed, Nell
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.
