reduplicate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to double; repeat.
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Grammar. to form (a derivative or inflected form) by doubling a specified syllable or other portion of the primitive, sometimes with fixed modifications, as in Greek léloipa “I have left,” leípo “I leave.”
verb (used without object)
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to become doubled.
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Grammar. to become reduplicated.
adjective
verb
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to make or become double; repeat
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to repeat (a sound or syllable) in a word or (of a sound or syllable) to be repeated, esp in forming inflections in certain languages
adjective
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doubled or repeated
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(of petals or sepals) having the margins curving outwards
Other Word Forms
- reduplicative adjective
Etymology
Origin of reduplicate
1560–70; < Late Latin reduplicātus (past participle of reduplicāre ), equivalent to Latin re- re- + duplic ( āre ) to double + -ātus -ate 1 ( see duplicate)
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.
Sir Hubert Wilkins, bearded Arctic explorer, offered to reduplicate a stunt he described to an Idaho Falls lecture audience.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Lefty gave us his magnificently written poem which he could never reduplicate because he had lost his hand.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
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Thus, in Malvaceae the corolla is contorted and the calyx valvate, or reduplicate; in St John’s-wort the calyx is imbricate, and the corolla contorted.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
He maintains that it is the d in d-d, the reduplicate pr�terite of do.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
In the present English there is no undoubted perfect or reduplicate form.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
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.