render
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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renders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rendered,
past participle, past
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rendering
present participle
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to cause to be or become; make.
to render someone helpless.
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to do; perform.
to render a service.
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to furnish; provide.
to render aid.
- Synonyms:
- afford, contribute, supply, give
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to exhibit or show (obedience, attention, etc.).
- Synonyms:
- demonstrate
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to present for consideration, approval, payment, action, etc., as an account.
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to return; to make (a payment in money, kind, or service) as by a tenant to a superior.
knights rendering military service to the lord.
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to pay as due (a tax, tribute, etc.).
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to deliver formally or officially; hand down.
to render a verdict.
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to translate into another language.
to render French poems into English.
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to represent; depict, as in painting.
to render a landscape.
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to represent (a perspective view of a projected building) in drawing or painting.
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to bring out the meaning of by performance or execution; interpret, as a part in a drama or a piece of music.
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Digital Technology.
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to use the processing power of computer hardware and software to synthesize (the components of an image or animation) in a final graphic output.
I’m able to render the lighting in this scene much faster now, thanks to my new graphics card.
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to load (game assets) in a video game, displaying objects, textures, geometry, lighting, etc., on screen in their complete intended form: The game is still playable even if the textures in the environment aren’t always rendered right.
My laggy connection didn’t render the enemies until I was basically standing on top of them.
The game is still playable even if the textures in the environment aren’t always rendered right.
-
-
to give in return or requital.
to render good for evil.
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to give back; restore (often followed byback ).
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to send (a suspected criminal) abroad; subject to rendition.
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to give up; surrender.
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Building Trades. to cover (masonry) with a first coat of plaster.
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to melt down; extract the impurities from by melting.
to render fat.
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to process, as for industrial use.
to render livestock carcasses.
verb (used without object)
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renders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rendered,
past participle, past
-
rendering
present participle
-
to provide due reward.
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to separate oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting.
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Digital Technology. (of assets in a video game) to load so they are visible to the player in their complete intended form.
There is a long delay before the geometry renders when I change zones, so sometimes I find my character walking in place up against a wall when the world finally loads.
noun
noun
verb
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to present or submit (accounts, etc) for payment, approval, or action
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to give or provide (aid, charity, a service, etc)
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to show (obedience), as due or expected
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to give or exchange, as by way of return or requital
to render blow for blow
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to cause to become
grief had rendered him simple-minded
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to deliver (a verdict or opinion) formally
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to portray or depict (something), as in painting, music, or acting
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computing to use colour and shading to make a digital image look three-dimensional and solid
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to translate (something) into another language or form
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(sometimes foll by up) to yield or give
the tomb rendered up its secret
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(often foll by back) to return (something); give back
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to cover the surface of (brickwork, stone, etc) with a coat of plaster
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(often foll by down) to extract (fat) from (meat) by melting
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nautical
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to reeve (a line)
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to slacken (a rope, etc)
-
-
history (of a feudal tenant) to make (payment) in money, goods, or services to one's overlord
noun
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a first thin coat of plaster applied to a surface
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history a payment in money, goods, or services made by a feudal tenant to his lord
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rendersimple
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renderssimple
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have renderedperfect
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has renderedperfect
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am renderingprogressive
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are renderingprogressive
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is renderingprogressive
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have been renderingperfect progressive
-
has been renderingperfect progressive
Past
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renderedsimple
-
had renderedperfect
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was renderingprogressive
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were renderingprogressive
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had been renderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of render1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English rendren, from Middle French rendre, from unattested Vulgar Latin rendere, alteration (formed by analogy with prendere “to take”) of Latin reddere “to give back,” equivalent to red- prefix meaning “again” or “again and again” + -dere, combining form of dare “to give”; see red-
Origin of render2
Explanation
Render is a synonym of "make" — technically it means "cause to become." An illness might render you unable to walk, or a shocking sight might render you speechless. Another basic meaning of the verb render is to give, present, or perform something: you could render assistance to someone in need, for example. And a specialized sense is to formally declare a verdict in a court case. Render derives from the Latin verb reddere, "to restore," from the prefix re-, "back," plus dare, "to give."
Vocabulary lists containing render
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 1
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The Declaration of Independence
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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:
Four minutes later, Cameron Hanekom scooped up scrappy ball to put the result beyond doubt and render replacement Beauden Barrett's late try only a footnote.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
In a 1998 artistic statement, she explained her artistic goal was to “create photographic images that compassionately render the human experience.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The endeavor, worth $1.4 billion, would render many acres of Albania’s coastline unrecognizable.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Their job is to apply the law to the facts of the case and render judgment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Being constantly on guard after a sleepless night was a good way to render one’s muscles stiff and clumsy, and that was the way Kaede felt when the wolves finally moved in.
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
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The lack of conflict that might have been created on a conventional news channel renders his impromptu network interminably boring.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026
Concept renders published by news outlets like MacRumors offer a preview of what the new phones might look like.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026
It is these same industrial-scale development projects that have been largely responsible for draining the area's peat swamps, which renders them significantly more fire-prone, Prof Page says.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
By removing the usual scaffolding that renders human life intelligible, above all custom and language, the books ask what lies beneath.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Such an approach inevitably renders the Scientific Revolution totally invisible.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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He saw that three-dimensional experience was going to be rendered in two dimensions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
For example, when the VSC gifted Lewis Hamilton the lead in Barcelona, even if that was rendered moot by Antonelli's subsequent retirement.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
His home being Hollywood—specifically a somewhat dank apartment, rendered in depressing detail by set designer François-Pierre Couture—Mr. Guimarães encounters qualities that are endemic to the place: for instance career envy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Weightier than any of that is the ever-more involuted mystery enveloping the real Elizabeth Short, whose murder has inspired fictionalized homages before De Palma’s movie and since, but has yet to be satisfactorily rendered onscreen.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
At the end of the day he returned to the fields again, collecting rice even after darkness had rendered his eyes useless.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
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He called for an open approach to AI development, warning it would be "fundamentally wrong" for such a crucial technology to be controlled by a few companies, rendering oversight more difficult.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
The effect would have been the opposite in prior years, rendering two successive decreases in citywide homelessness marginally less impressive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
I scroll through the portraits he’d emailed me: two women laughing, a family smiling, and my personal favorite, a pop-artish rendering of Gigi Hadid.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
It might be those ploughshare tortoises, 75 of which were stolen from a successful Madagascar breeding facility in 1996, rendering them virtually extinct.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Whereupon Jackson commented that any judge rendering such an opinion in Georgia would be of short duration.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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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.