- past tense form of precipitate.
- past participle of precipitate.
precipitated
Americanadjective
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having been brought on suddenly or prematurely.
Pressure on the tender spot causes the patient to physically react to the precipitated pain by exclaiming or moving.
Operators are requesting compensation for losses incurred due to the precipitated shutdown of reactors after the accident.
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Chemistry. (of solid material) having been separated from a solution, such as by evaporation or through the use of a reagent.
You can tell the reaction is complete from the purple color of the precipitated sodium chloride.
The precipitated salts give the dry lake bed a white color resembling a beach.
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Meteorology. having fallen as rain, snow, hail, etc..
Most of the precipitated water moves along these defined channels before being discharged into streams.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of precipitated
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.
Greenspan is now blamed for looking the other way as banks and brokerage firms bought and sold massive amounts of risky mortgage debt, which precipitated the devastating global financial crisis of 2008.
From MarketWatch ● May 10, 2026
It also precipitated devastating civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya, which triggered large-scale migration from the region to Europe.
From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026
Paul’s initial claim to fame was launching #MomTok in 2020, which precipitated the 2024 Hulu series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
Sicily precipitated the eventual collision between Carthage and Rome.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
And here it was, two years later more or less, and Joe Mondragon had precipitated a crisis, and Amarante Cordova had never been so excited in his life.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
