📍 To find position 🔺 To divide into triangles 🛠️ Triangle-shaped

to triangulate

1 7.5

To divide something into triangles for building or measuring

verb
/traɪˈæŋɡjʊˌleɪt/

Specialized

: triangular

In order to advance this new model of interpretation, in what follows I triangulate three approaches: the formal, the genetic, and the historical.
triangulated goals
triangulated data

Examples

Triangulating these three components helps the team write a goal that provides a maximized outcome for students with disabilities.

Academic text (2013)
It requires reading multiple sources, triangulating among them, and reaching our best sense of the truth.

Academic text (2017)
My goal is to make the active paths triangulate the paper.
Creating triangulated transition and academically focused annual goals ensures that all goals are applicable to postsecondary plans.

Academic text (2013)
By comparing the various methods and triangulating the results, we provide summary estimates of the overall US norovirus disease burden, including specific estimates by age groups and disease outcomes.

Academic text (2013)
Triangulating annual goals to the post-secondary goal creates a student-focused, compliant, legally defensible, and relevant IEP (see Figure 3).

Academic text (2013)
Mr. Krump and Marisala's IEP team developed triangulated annual goals that addressed Marisala's current level of skills and knowledge, the child-care industry standards, and adaptive behavior expectations.

Academic text (2013)
To accurately measure the land, the engineer will triangulate the boundaries to create precise maps.
In order to determine the best path for the road, the team must triangulate the points of interest on the map.
The architect suggested they triangulate the support beams to ensure the building's stability.

Synonyms

to triangle

vsto triangulate

7.9

To arrange something so it has three straight sides and three angles

divide something into many three-sided pieces for measurement or construction

Surface Forms

triangulate infinitive

triangulated past

triangulated past participle

triangulating present participle

triangulates third person singular

Morphology

triangulate = triangle (transparent) = triangle + ate

The verb is directly formed from 'triangle' + the productive verb-forming suffix '-ate', so the meaning 'make into triangles' is predictable.

Etymology

Triangulate comes from the parts tri- meaning 'three' and angle meaning 'corner', the same root as triangle. A simple way to remember it is to imagine dividing a surface into many small triangles to measure or make it stronger, so to triangulate something is to give it a triangular form or split it into triangles.