incorporate
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
incorporates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
incorporated,
past participle, past
-
incorporating
present participle
-
to form into a legal corporation.
-
to put or introduce into a body or mass as an integral part or parts.
to incorporate revisions into a text.
-
to take in or include as a part or parts, as the body or a mass does.
His book incorporates his earlier essay.
-
to form or combine into one body or uniform substance, as ingredients.
- Synonyms:
- personify, amalgamate, mix, blend, assimilate, absorb
-
His book incorporates all his thinking on the subject.
-
to form into a society or organization.
verb (used without object)
-
incorporates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
incorporated,
past participle, past
-
incorporating
present participle
-
to form a legal corporation.
-
to unite or combine so as to form one body.
adjective
-
legally incorporated, as a company.
-
combined into one body, mass, or substance.
-
Archaic. embodied.
adjective
verb
-
to include or be included as a part or member of a united whole
-
to form or cause to form a united whole or mass; merge or blend
-
to form (individuals, an unincorporated enterprise, etc) into a corporation or other organization with a separate legal identity from that of its owners or members
adjective
-
combined into a whole; incorporated
-
formed into or constituted as a corporation
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
incorporatesimple
-
incorporatessimple
-
have incorporatedperfect
-
has incorporatedperfect
-
am incorporatingprogressive
-
are incorporatingprogressive
-
is incorporatingprogressive
-
have been incorporatingperfect progressive
-
has been incorporatingperfect progressive
Past
-
incorporatedsimple
-
had incorporatedperfect
-
was incorporatingprogressive
-
were incorporatingprogressive
-
had been incorporatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of incorporate1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Late Latin incorporātus, past participle of incorporāre “to embody, incarnate”; see in- 2, corporate
Origin of incorporate2
First recorded in 1525–35; from Late Latin incorporātus “not embodied”; see in- 3, corporate
Explanation
To incorporate is to include or integrate a part into the whole. Incorporate is a more active version of the word "include"; if you incorporate, you are adding something to the mix. In the business world, to incorporate is a legal process. In other usages, the word incorporate really just means to include something or work something into whatever was already existing. You could incorporate your new roommate's furniture into the decor of your apartment, but you may not find a way to incorporate her cat's litter box.
Vocabulary lists containing incorporate
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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List 4
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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:
On 8,000 acres in Michigan, Ford’s researchers planted 300 soybean varieties and searched for ways to incorporate the harvest into automobiles.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
I love to incorporate crystals and rhinestones as an element to my fashion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
“So one of the things that we believe that investors should be doing is looking at how to orient strategies that incorporate things beyond equities and bonds into that portfolio,” Amin said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Estimates will remain cloudy, however, until economists can further incorporate Friday morning’s August consumer-price data into their analysis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
“The factions were our predecessors’ attempt to incorporate a ‘nurture’ element to the experiment—they discovered that mere genetic correction was not enough to change the way people behaved.
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
Let’s begin with an example that incorporates only state and local income-tax brackets, with the most commonly cited benchmark bond.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
“Bookmaking as a process incorporates technologies from every century. Whatever makes the best book,” Gioia said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
He helped popularize Egyptian jeel music: a genre that incorporates elements of reggae and pop, while maintaining a distinctly Egyptian sound.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The framework incorporates a lightweight Transformer architecture designed to account for hydrological memory and delayed effects within mountainous catchments.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
In these cases, one mixes pseudorandom numbers from several computers, then incorporates the physical indeterminacy of randomly fluctuating voltages from a “white noise” source.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
The pro-merger organization, Neighbors for Strong Communities, was incorporated in Washington, D.C., in June and has lobbed text messages to Californians urging them to press Bonta to drop the case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Generative AI is being incorporated into the workplace at a rapid pace, as fast as the personal computer and faster than the internet was.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
This information could be incorporated into several types of automated tools that alert clinicians to potentially inappropriate prescribing cascades at the point of care.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Foods including avocado, quinoa, açaí, aguaymanto, chia, and pumpkin seeds were incorporated as locally accessible options.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026
A few years later the Japanese company incorporated elements of Lawrence’s design into one of the most successful color TV technologies in history, a product it named Trinitron.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Their bubble risk indicator is a price-based measure, designed to detect bubble-like asset dynamics with the model incorporating an asset’s returns, volatility, momentum and fragility into a single reading.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
"That includes several audits. They have now reconciled their historical data, and recently they published a revised bulletin with the historical data, incorporating the findings of the debt," she said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
She has seen formats incorporating sandwiches, hot dogs and pizzas, and toppings ranging from Nashville Hot chicken and bacon strips to elote and lobster.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Researchers alter the chemical structure of a drug by incorporating a light-sensitive molecular switch.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
On the negative side, arts teachers are seen as separate “specialists,” which erroneously relieves the classroom teacher of any responsibility for incorporating the arts into the daily classroom experience.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
