- 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.
The transaction, while small at just 32 bitcoin, hurt investor confidence and precipitated a swift market pullback.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Production ended on July 27, 1990 at a factory in Portugal, precipitated by tightening emission standards in Europe.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
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
I don’t know if it’s the trad-wife movement online or what has precipitated this, but my generation was very much splitting the bill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
Those deaths precipitated a contest for the throne between Atahuallpa and his half brother Huascar.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
