Communicate Meaning
/kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo impart.
verbTo impart., To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell.
Sentence Examples
Before long, we'll be able to communicate with each other by T.V. telephone.
We need to communicate with each other.
People with the disease may lose their ability to communicate.
Vocabulary Challenge
Test your knowledge of the word "communicate" in the LexUp app!
Take English Level Test
CEFR Practice Quiz
Despite the language barrier, they managed to ____ using hand gestures.
Word Origin & History
Adapted borrowing of Latin commūnicāt- (past participial stem of commūnicō (“share, impart; make common”)) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from commūnis (“common”) + -icō. Compare French communiquer and its older (and now obsolete) English cognate from Middle French, communique.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 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:
"thousands that communicate our loss"
— 1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
"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."
— 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:
"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."
— 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 148:
"[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."
— 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:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Despite the language barrier, they managed to ____ using hand gestures.