Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/Category:English 4-syllable words#COMMUNICATECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#COMMUNICATE

• Audio (US):

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  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#COMMUNICATE
• Hyphenation: com‧mu‧ni‧cate

Verb

communicate (third-person singular simple present communicates, present participle communicating, simple past and past participle communicated)Category:English lemmas#COMMUNICATECategory:English verbs#COMMUNICATECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COMMUNICATECategory:Pages with entries#COMMUNICATECategory:Pages with 2 entries#COMMUNICATE

1. To impart.
   1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COMMUNICATE) To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. [from 16th c.]

      It is vital that I communicate this information to you.Category:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

   2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COMMUNICATE) To impart or transmit (an intangible quantity, substance); to give a share of. [from 16th c.]

      to communicate motion by means of a crankCategory:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

      • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, “The Introduction”, in The Worthy Communicant or A Discourse of the Nature, Effects, and Blessings Consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the Lords Supper […], London: […] R. Norton for John Martyn, James Allestry, and Thomas Dicas […], published 1661, →OCLC, page 2:

        Did ye not knovv that I ought to be ib my fathers houſe? that is, there vvhere God is vvorſhipped, vvhere he communicates his bleſſing and holy influences, there and there only vve are ſure to meet our deareſt Lord.

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   3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COMMUNICATE) To pass on (a disease) to another person, animal etc. [from 17th c.]

      The disease was mainly communicated via rats and other vermin.Category:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

2. To share
   1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COMMUNICATE, obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#COMMUNICATE) To share (in); to have in common, to partake of. [16th–19th c.]

      We shall now consider those functions of intelligence which man communicates with the higher beasts.Category:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

      • 1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

        thousands that communicate our loss

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   2. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#COMMUNICATE, ChristianityCategory:en:Christianity#COMMUNICATE) To receive the bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist; to take part in Holy Communion. [from 16th c.]
      • 1899 January – 1902 January, John Buchan, “The Watcher by the Threshold”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, page 213:

        It seems that now [the Devil] was driving Alison hard. She had been remiss of late—fewer souls sent to hell, less zeal in quenching the Spirit, and, above all, the crowning offense that her bairn had communicated in Christ's kirk.

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      • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 148:

        The ‘better sort’ might communicate on a separate day; and in some parishes even the quality of the communion wine varied with the social quality of the recipients.

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        Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#COMMUNICATE, ChristianityCategory:en:Christianity#COMMUNICATE) To administer the Holy Communion to (someone). [from 16th c.]
      • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, “Of Repentance Preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament. Sect[ion] V. What Significations of Repentance are to be Accepted by the Church in Admission of Penitents to the Communion.”, in The Worthy Communicant or A Discourse of the Nature, Effects, and Blessings Consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the Lords Supper […], London: […] R. Norton for John Martyn, James Allestry, and Thomas Dicas […], published 1661, →OCLC, pages 475–476:

        [W]hen ſhe [the church] can underſtand that ſuch an emendation is made, and the man is really reformed, ſhe can pronounce him pardon'd, or vvhich is all one, ſhe may communicate him.

        Category:English terms with quotations#COMMUNICATE

   4. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#COMMUNICATE) To express or convey ideas, either through verbal or nonverbal means; to have intercourse, to exchange information. [from 16th c.]

      Many deaf people communicate with sign language.Category:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

      I feel I hardly know him; I just wish he'd communicate with me a little more.Category:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

   5. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#COMMUNICATE) To be connected by means of an opening or channel [with with ‘another room, vessel etc.’]. [from 16th c.]

      The living room communicates with the back garden by these French windows.Category:English terms with usage examples#COMMUNICATE

      • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter II, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 29:

        There was a door in the kitchen, communicating with the forge; […]

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      • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 7:

        A scheme of internal staircases and upper stories enabled the rooms built upon this eastern slope to communicate with the Central Court on the crown of the hill.

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Adjective

communicate (comparative more communicate, superlative most communicate)Category:English lemmas#COMMUNICATECategory:English adjectives#COMMUNICATECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COMMUNICATECategory:Pages with entries#COMMUNICATECategory:Pages with 2 entries#COMMUNICATE

2. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#COMMUNICATE) Communicated, (made) commune, joined.
   • 1561, T. Norton, translation of J. Calvin, Institution of Christian Religion (1634), volume ii. xiv., page 226:

     The property of the manhood is communicate with the other nature.

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   • 1893, W. Allingham, Varieties in Prose, volume III., page 260:

     Art..gives a natural scope, and lasting experience, to Genius. Artists are men of a communicate genius.

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