stipulate
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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stipulates,
present (3rd person singular)
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stipulated,
past participle, past
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stipulating
present participle
verb (used with object)
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stipulates,
present (3rd person singular)
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stipulated,
past participle, past
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stipulating
present participle
-
to arrange expressly or specify in terms of agreement.
to stipulate a price.
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to require as an essential condition in making an agreement.
Total disarmament was stipulated in the peace treaty.
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to promise, in making an agreement.
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Law. to accept (a proposition) without requiring that it be established by proof.
to stipulate the existence of certain facts or that an expert witness is qualified.
adjective
verb
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(tr; may take a clause as object) to specify, often as a condition of an agreement
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to insist (on) as a term of an agreement
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Roman law to make (an oral contract) in the form of question and answer necessary to render it legally valid
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(tr; may take a clause as object) to guarantee or promise
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stipulatesimple
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stipulatessimple
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have stipulatedperfect
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has stipulatedperfect
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am stipulatingprogressive
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are stipulatingprogressive
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is stipulatingprogressive
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have been stipulatingperfect progressive
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has been stipulatingperfect progressive
Past
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stipulatedsimple
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had stipulatedperfect
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was stipulatingprogressive
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were stipulatingprogressive
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had been stipulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stipulate1
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin stipulātus (past participle of stipulārī “to demand a formal agreement”), apparently equivalent to stipul- ( see stipule) + -ātus -ate 1
Origin of stipulate2
From the New Latin word stipulātus, dating back to 1770–80. See stipule, -ate 1
Explanation
To stipulate something means to demand that it be part of an agreement. So when you make a contract or deal, you can stipulate that a certain condition must be met. Anytime you draw up a legal agreement, you can stipulate a requirement that has to be met for that agreement to be complete. This stipulation might put some sort of limit on the agreement. For example, if you run a fencing company and offer a sale, you can stipulate that to get the sale price, the fence must be ordered by a certain date. Your customer, in turn, might stipulate that the work must be finished before the ground freezes.
Vocabulary lists containing stipulate
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Great Expectations
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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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:
The simplest approach would be to amend the statutory language to stipulate that, similar to the GAO, the Federal Reserve is “an instrumentality of the United States Government independent of the executive departments.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
But its bylaws stipulate that the entity can be dissolved at any time, which means the billionaire could regain control of it as soon as his second term ends in 2029.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Martin noted some virtual jobs stipulate no promotions during onboarding, as some employers who are enforcing return-to-office rules actively favor their on-site staff for advancement.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
European Union regulations stipulate that EasyJet must be majority-owned by EU citizens.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
But suddenly we’re asked to stipulate, according to a list of terms, why we think that, and the terms are meaningless to us.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
The IRS stipulates that pay must be “reasonable” and states that organizations should rely on a comparison of pay across organizations doing similar work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Questions still linger over where the all-British bout would take place, with Eddie Hearn saying Joshua's contract stipulates the UK, but industry whispers suggesting a venue in America.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The efficient-markets hypothesis, developed decades ago by economists at the University of Chicago, stipulates that all available information is already factored into the market price.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
South Korea’s constitution stipulates the presidency is a one-term job.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
“Tano had a lot of goons,” Autumn stipulates, finger-spelling goons.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
“It does not prevent the County from agreeing to a standstill. It does not prevent the county from returning to court with a stipulated resolution.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Privately, Paramount officials were worried they might lose that round before Martínez-Olguín so, during negotiations with the states, Paramount stipulated that it would not close the deal on its preferred timetable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
When King Charles II gave Rhode Island a royal charter in 1663, he stipulated that the king’s “loving subjects” would not be stopped from “using and exercising the trade of fishing upon the coast.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
A new code of practice was introduced that stipulated that searches must be intelligence-led and based on "reasonable grounds".
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
Although this attitude wasn’t uncommon at the time, NIH guidelines stipulated that all human subject research funded by NIH—as McKusick’s was —required both informed consent and approval from a Hopkins review board.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Aside from stipulating how to divide assets, it safeguards which children from prior relationships will receive an inheritance.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Sandy is also alarmed councils are giving out operator licences without stipulating that e-bikes must be insured to cover incidents such as hers.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
Matt Fitzgerald, Santander Consumer’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, described a conversation with Dundon about “stips,” or statements stipulating the borrower’s income, address and phone number have been verified.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2026
The Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ, contains several provisions stipulating that servicemembers are liable for illegal orders even if they were given by a superior officer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
It was a nondisclosure form stipulating that father and son would not tell anyone what had gone on inside the prison.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
