Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
⚡ To cause suddenly 🧪 To form a solid 🧫 A solid from solution 🏃 Too hasty 🌧️ To fall as rain ⏬ To throw suddenly
to precipitate

to precipitate

1 8.1
To cause someone or something to fall suddenly into a new state
  • verb
  • /prɪˈsɪpɪˌteɪt/
  • Formal
: precipitar
  • As guides, we are there to assist in the evaluation of life's circumstances, life's goals, and the impending disruption and change that a new member of a family precipitates.

Examples

  • Just as having a certain mental state requires an appropriate disposition, so are dispositions precipitated by fitting mental states.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The sudden news of the merger precipitated a wave of uncertainty among the employees.

  • Instead, he had been precipitated into an alternate universe.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The notion that On Kawara lurks behind the "self-objectified presence" precipitated by his "bureaucratic" records seems a strange suspicion.

    Academic text (1999)

  • "Not for sale," said Mama Hallie, leaning against the door with her full weight, like a boulder precipitating an avalanche, until he thought all the bones in his foot were going to break and tried to withdraw.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Her fear of the dark can sometimes precipitate anxiety attacks when she is alone.

  • Heavy rains can precipitate flooding in low-lying areas of the city.

Synonyms

to spark
vsto precipitate
216 3.4

To cause something to start, often an idea or strong feeling

causes sudden rapid movement into a new state rather than merely starting it
to induce
vsto precipitate
133 5.3

Cause a process, event, or feeling to start

causes sudden rapid change rather than gradual or delayed onset
precipitating
vsto precipitate
  • Formal
3 6.7

Something that causes a sudden, unexpected event or change

is the simple verb form used broadly rather than the participle

Antonyms

to stabilize
  • US
44 4.3

To become steady and stop changing

How Sudden

to throw
1 7.5
to plunge
81 3.8
to precipitate
  • Formal
1 8.1
to lead to
∞ 2.5
to move into
636 1.0

Surface Forms

precipitate infinitive
precipitated past
precipitated past participle
precipitating present participle
precipitates third person singular

Morphology

precipitate = precipit + ate

Although semantically related to 'falling' or 'causing to fall', the morphological parts are Latin-derived and not productive modern English morphemes that would let a learner derive this meaning reliably.

Etymology

Precipitate comes from Latin parts prae- 'before' and caput 'head', which together give the sense of being thrown 'headfirst'. So to precipitate someone or something into a state is to push them there suddenly and quickly.