Regulate Meaning
/ˈɹɛɡjəleɪ̯t/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo dictate policy.
verbTo control or direct according to rule, principle, or law.
Sentence Examples
Traffic lights are used to regulate traffic.
During warm weather, sweating helps man regulate his body temperature.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The smart thermostat helps to ____ the temperature in the house automatically all day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The government moved to ____ the financial sector more strictly following the banking crisis.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Latin regulatus, perfect passive participle of regulō (“to direct, rule, regulate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from regula (“rule”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”). Compare regle, rail. Displaced native Old English metegian.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"the laws which regulate the succession of the seasons"
— 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
"The herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes, and regulated their own police."
— 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:
"But on Tuesday, Sam Altman[…] testified before members of a Senate subcommittee and largely agreed with them on the need to regulate the increasingly powerful A.I. technology being created inside his company and others like Google and Microsoft."
— 2023 May 16, Cecilia Kang, “OpenAI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 May 2023:
"The NFA has been a flashpoint for advocates, who say that silencers are not frequently used in crime and believe that the silencers and other weapons regulated under the law, including machine guns and short-barreled rifles and shotguns, are protected by the Second Amendment."
— 2025 March 26, Hannah Rabinowitz, “DOJ considers abandoning the defense of federal restrictions on gun silencers”, in CNN:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The smart thermostat helps to ____ the temperature in the house automatically all day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The government moved to ____ the financial sector more strictly following the banking crisis.