premeditate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Synonym Usage
See deliberate.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of premeditate
First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin praemeditātus, past participle of praemeditārī “to contemplate in advance”; see pre-, meditate
Explanation
When you premeditate, you are planning ahead. While most people associate this word with crime, let's hope you can think of a better reason to premeditate — like buying groceries before a storm. When you meditate, you think deeply. The prefix pre- means “before,” so to premeditate means to think about a situation before you’ve jumped into it. If you’ve ever cooked a meal, you’ve premeditated the ingredients you need to get started. In a courtroom you’ll hear about "premeditated murder," which means the accused killer planned out his crime and it wasn’t a crime of passion. Premeditating can be a good thing, but not when it involves murder.
Vocabulary lists containing premeditate
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:
But defense attorney Tom Jacquinot said in his opening statement that the evidence will show Vrba did not premeditate to kill Steinfeld, who was his friend.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 3, 2020
Derek was into discovering things that you couldn’t premeditate.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2020
"At no time did I premeditate interfering with anyone," said Maragh, whose mount finished last in the field of 12.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 13, 2011
When I decide to make a movie, I don't premeditate it.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 23, 2011
A man who shuts himself up meditates, and for such men to meditate is to premeditate.
From The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Hugo, Victor
It was a batter clearly playing to his strengths, even if he insists it was not premeditated.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026
The events of that night have been long a subject of heated debate in South Korea, particularly over whether the murder was premeditated.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
Unlike the deliberate, premeditated approach of human engineers, the natural process for generating life has no preconceived plan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Although Duke Béla's assassination in November 1272 appears to have been partly or wholly premeditated, the manner of the killing indicates that it was not carried out calmly.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2025
Indeed, one of the most disarming features of the Burr version—a feature that enhances its overall credibility—is that it made Burr’s shot a more deliberate and premeditated act.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
No, say the four defense psychologists and psychiatrists who have examined Sirhan; as a paranoid schizophrenic, Sirhan was, in effect, incapable of fully premeditating his deed or weighing its risks.
From Time Magazine Archive
The deadly, premeditated dullness of financial ads last week brought scornful shouts from two premeditating wits.
From Time Magazine Archive
He is smart enough to possibly be given credit for premeditating this eremitic media strategy; he is also obstreperous enough simply to hate having his privacy invaded.
From Time Magazine Archive
Altogether they constitute the great vague body of man’s super-personal mental life, his unselfish life, his growing life, as a premeditating, self-conscious race and destiny.
From Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump; Being a First Selection from the Literary Remains of George Boon, Appropriate to the Times by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
All Peytel's insinuations against his servant had no other end than to show, in every point of Rey's conduct, the behavior of a man who was premeditating attack.
From The Paris Sketch Book by Thackeray, William Makepeace
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.
