dilute
Americanverb (used with object)
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dilutes,
present (3rd person singular)
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diluted,
past participle, past
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diluting
present participle
verb (used without object)
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dilutes,
present (3rd person singular)
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diluted,
past participle, past
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diluting
present participle
adjective
verb
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to make or become less concentrated, esp by adding water or a thinner
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to make or become weaker in force, effect, etc
he diluted his story
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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diluteenoun
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diluternoun
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dilutornoun
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overdiluteverb
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antidilutiveadjective
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dilutiveadjective
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undiluteadjective
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undilutedadjective
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undilutingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dilutesimple
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dilutessimple
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have dilutedperfect
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has dilutedperfect
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am dilutingprogressive
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are dilutingprogressive
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is dilutingprogressive
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have been dilutingperfect progressive
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has been dilutingperfect progressive
Past
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dilutedsimple
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had dilutedperfect
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was dilutingprogressive
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were dilutingprogressive
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had been dilutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dilute
1545–55; < Latin dīlūtus washed away, dissolved (past participle of dīluere ), equivalent to dī- di- 2 + -lūtus, combining form of lautus ( lav ( ere ) to wash + -tus past participle suffix)
Explanation
When you dilute something, you make it thinner, weaker, or more watered down. If you put lots of ice cubes in your soda, the ice will melt and dilute the drink. Think about diluting as lessening the quality but increasing the quantity. Unless you're diluting a really strong drink to make it taste better or diluting heavy paint to get a lighter shade — then the quality actually improves. Quipped President John F. Kennedy, “Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.”
Vocabulary lists containing dilute
Word Generation Science - Introductory Chemistry Concepts
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Margaret Chase Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" (1950)
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The Chocolate War
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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:
This evidence suggests they were already planning to dilute Yugraneft's interest and that the argument they used in court about financing was a smokescreen.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
A share-based deal could dilute earnings and dividends per share, he reckons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
But don’t let the relatable career-girl pluck of the movie dilute the fact that this song is pissed off about capitalism, even as its hooks make the grind of working life more bearable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Over time, their stakes will dilute further as current holders give their equity away and the ownership group keeps expanding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
"It's a concentrated perfume extract. I could dilute it into an eau de toilette."
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Unfortunately, the way Mr. Iñárritu stages the scene, with Digger getting shouted down from all corners, dilutes the power of his substantially sound argument.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Investors aren’t usually happy when a company sells stock to raise money, because it dilutes the holdings of current shareholders by reducing the percentage of the company that those shareholders own.
From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026
But even that movie dilutes Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel to a fraction of its story, reducing all of the text’s thematic resonance to a footnote along with it.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026
It hops from tone to tone, and goes on a little long, in the modern manner, which dilutes the suspense.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2026
We have to-day a wonderful instrument, which will be described later, which dilutes, as it were, the general glare of the sun, and enables us to observe these fiery eruptions at any hour.
From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by J. Arthur Thomson
Sibir's 50% interest in the joint venture had been diluted, or reduced, to less than 1%.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Instead, once the predictable sound and fury had been diluted by City's composure and the swift realisation they were not unnerved by Anfield or the storm raging around the club, this was a surreal experience.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Share buybacks can lower a company’s diluted share count and raise its earnings per share.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
Everything has a chance to mingle before the soup gets diluted.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
For general cleaning, the kind a custodian would do in a high school, you’d go with a much gentler, cheaper agent, diluted bleach.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
They included agreements under which two Abramovich companies would acquire shares in Sibneft-Yugra, increasing his stake and diluting Yugraneft's.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Global connection came with a kind of dispersion, diluting shared connections closer to home while allowing for worldwide discovery.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
Making Shakespeare’s plays accessible is a noble goal, but there are other ways to go about this beyond modernizing the text and diluting its lyrical beauty and nuance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
Volkswagen said Thursday the company had agreed to curb the supervisory board's power, potentially diluting the influence of unions that sit on it.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
We could cure Daoud right now, or we could try to save more people—like my parents—by conserving every drop and diluting it....But in doing so, we might end up with nothing.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
