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Glite Dictionary
🛠️ To enable 🧬 To prepare sperm 📜 To give legal power
to capacitate

to capacitate

9.9
To cause sperm to change so they can fertilize an egg
  • verb
  • /kəˈpæsɪˌteɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : capacitar
  • Mature sperm must capacitate in the female reproductive tract before they can fertilize an egg.

Examples

  • Sperm must capacitate before they can fertilize an egg.

  • The process of capacitating sperm is crucial for successful fertilization.

  • Certain chemicals in the oviductal fluid help to capacitate the sperm.

  • Without proper capacitateion, fertilization cannot occur.

  • Certain chemicals in the oviductal fluid help to capacitate the sperm, enabling it to fertilize an egg.

  • Mature sperm must capacitate within the female reproductive tract to achieve the changes necessary for fertilization.

  • For fertilization to occur, sperm must capacitate to undergo the physical changes required.

Surface Forms

capacitate infinitive
capacitated past
capacitated past participle
capacitating present participle
capacitates third person singular

Morphology

capacitate = capacity (semi-transparent) = capacity + ate

Derivationally 'make capable' is clear, but the biological sense (sperm undergoing changes to become capable of fertilizing) is a specialized technical meaning not obvious to general learners.

Etymology

Capacitate in biology uses the same idea as capacity and capable, meaning 'able'; it describes the physical changes that make sperm 'able' to fertilize an egg. So to capacitate sperm is to give them the ability they need to do their job.