reduplicate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to double; repeat.
-
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)
-
to become doubled.
-
Grammar. to become reduplicated.
adjective
verb
-
to make or become double; repeat
-
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
-
doubled or repeated
-
(of petals or sepals) having the margins curving outwards
Other Word Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Sir Hubert Wilkins, bearded Arctic explorer, offered to reduplicate a stunt he described to an Idaho Falls lecture audience.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Lefty gave us his magnificently written poem which he could never reduplicate because he had lost his hand.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
![]()
In the Mœso-Gothic, however, there was a true reduplicate form; in other words, a perfect tense as well as an aorist.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Did from do is also considered to be a reduplicate form.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
There should be no psychic activity in sleep; if the psyche stirs, then just to that extent have we failed to reduplicate the foetal condition; remainders of psychic activity could not be completely avoided.
From A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Freud, Sigmund
He retained them in the multipanel murals, which were composed of three to five individual prints, with figures at the margins sliced and reduplicated where the prints overlapped.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2023
In this show’s 1912 collage of a face by Picasso, a reduplicated nose and ear seem to cast doubt on the entire project of orderly representation.
From New York Times ● Aug. 11, 2022
They may be the images of a string of lights at a distance, or they may be reduplicated images of a single very bright light.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
However, the singing by Ronnie McDowell is gilt-edge counterfeit, Elvis' sound carefully shaped and reduplicated by Felton Jarvis, Presley's own producer at RCA.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
The same Seditious flame, Beat backward with reduplicated might, Struggles alive within its stricter term, And is the worm.
From The Unknown Eros by Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton
Twenty yards of the rope already in hand was set against stones—whose weight they had already determined by reduplicating a number of bullets—and its quantity ascertained in pounds and ounces.
From The Cliff Climbers A Sequel to "The Plant Hunters" by Reid, Mayne
The Octave is the starting-point of a new series reduplicating the starting-point of the previous series at a different level, just as does the octave note in music.
From The Doré Lectures being Sunday addresses at the Doré Gallery, London, given in connection with the Higher Thought Centre by Troward, T. (Thomas)
Far and wide the thundering shout, Rolling among reduplicating rocks, Pealed o'er the hills, and up the mountain vales.
From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3 by Coleridge, Ernest Hartley
Another was for the making of jig-saw puzzles, a third for their elucidation, a fourth was for typewriting; and there was a reduplicating apparatus, and another table with materials for illuminating.
From The Eldest Son by Marshall, Archibald
Intelligence, he thought, is no miraculous, idle faculty, by which we mirror passively any or everything that happens to be true, reduplicating the real world to no purpose.
From Winds Of Doctrine Studies in Contemporary Opinion by Santayana, George
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.