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to collocate

to collocate

7.9
To appear together more often than expected by chance
  • verb
  • /ˈkɒləˌkeɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : colocar
  • When analyzing text, it's important to recognize how frequently certain terms collocate together, which can reveal underlying meanings.

Examples

  • Teachers frequently notice that some adjectives collocate with nouns in predictable ways, such as 'heavy rain' or 'strong coffee.'

  • Another, more radical approach would be to use these relationships as a basis for collocating material.

    Academic text (2013)
  • These talks attracted a lot of attention from the participants in other collocated workshops, who joined us for this session.

    Academic text (2017)
  • It may be desirable to collocate data from many sources to facilitate analysis, a common requirement in, say, genomics.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Linking entry fields, as they are commonly used in e-book cataloging, offer one way to collocate related manifestations of the same work.

    Academic text (2013)
  • The revised ISSN standard issued in 2007 launched the concept of the Linking ISSN (ISSN-L), which collocates or links among different media versions of a continuing resource.

    Blog text (12)
  • In Wu and Mitchell's 2010 article on batch management of e-book records, they noted that "lack of a reliable identifier to collocate equivalent manifestations on an automated basis" is "a significant obstacle to full adoption of the provider neutral standard at the local level."

    Academic text (2013)
  • Thornburg and Oskins examine the use of Global Library Manifestation Identifier (GLIMIR) identification numbers in the OCLC Extended WorldCat set to collocate records on music materials.

    Academic text (2014)
  • In language studies, we often explore how certain words tend to collocate with specific verbs, creating common phrases like 'make a decision.'

Synonyms

to collocate with
vsto collocate
  • Specialized
7.4

Happen together often in speech or writing

is used for cases showing a statistical tendency beyond chance
to cooccur with
vsto collocate
6.3

Happen or appear at the same time as another thing, often about words in text

is used only for word pairs that tend to occur together more than chance

Phrasal Verbs

to collocate with
  • Specialized
7.4

Happen together often in speech or writing

How Often

to collocate with
  • Specialized
7.4
to collocate
  • Specialized
7.9

Surface Forms

collocate infinitive
collocated past
collocated past participle
collocating present participle
collocates third person singular

Morphology

collocate = locate (semi-transparent) = col + locate

The composition 'col- (together) + locate' clearly yields 'place together', but the specialized linguistic sense ('words that occur together') is technical and not fully predictable for an average learner.

Etymology

The word collocate comes from the Latin parts com- 'together' and locare 'to place'. So in language, when words collocate they 'place together' often, meaning they regularly appear next to each other.