generate verb - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

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Definition of generate verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

generate

verb

OPAL W OPAL S

/ˈdʒenəreɪt/

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they generate	/ˈdʒenəreɪt/ /ˈdʒenəreɪt/
he / she / it generates	/ˈdʒenəreɪts/ /ˈdʒenəreɪts/
past simple generated	/ˈdʒenəreɪtɪd/ /ˈdʒenəreɪtɪd/
past participle generated	/ˈdʒenəreɪtɪd/ /ˈdʒenəreɪtɪd/
-ing form generating	/ˈdʒenəreɪtɪŋ/ /ˈdʒenəreɪtɪŋ/

jump to other results

generate something to produce energy, especially electricity
- The wind turbines are used to generate electricity.
- to generate heat/power
- Living cells generate energy from food.
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Topics The environmentb2

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generate something to produce or create something
- to generate revenue/income/profit
- We need someone to generate new ideas.
- The proposal has generated a lot of interest.
Synonyms make
makedo ▪ create ▪ develop ▪ produce ▪ generate ▪ formThese words all mean to make something from parts or materials, or to cause something to exist or happen.
make to create or prepare something by combining materials or putting parts together; to cause something to exist or happen:
She makes her own clothes.
She made a good impression on the interviewer.
do (rather informal) to make or prepare something, especially something artistic or something to eat:
He did a beautiful drawing of a house.
Who’s doing the food for the party?
create to make something exist or happen, especially something new that did not exist before:
Scientists disagree about how the universe was created.
make or create?Make is a more general word and is more often used for physical things: you would usually make a table/dress/cake but create jobs/wealth. You can use create for something physical in order to emphasize how original or unusual the object is: Try this new dish, created by our head chef.
develop (used especially in business contexts) to think of and produce a new product:
to develop new software
produce to make things to be sold; to create something using skill:
a factory that produces microchips
generate to produce or create something, especially power, money or ideas:
to generate electricity
Brainstorming is a good way of generating ideas.
form [often passive] to make something from something else; to make something into something else:
Rearrange the letters to form a new word.
The chain is formed from 136 links.
Patterns
- to make/create/develop/produce/generate/form something from/out of something
- to make/form something into something
- to make/produce wine
- to create/develop a new product
- to create/produce/generate income/profits/wealth
- to produce/generate electricity/heat/power
Extra Examples
- The lottery is expected to generate substantial funds for charities.
- People used to believe that dirt spontaneously generated disease.
- a sequence of randomly generated fractions
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adverb
- quickly
- automatically
- spontaneously
- …
verb + generate
- help (to)
- be used to
- be expected to
- …
preposition
- from
See full entry
generate something (computing) to produce a set or sequence of data by taking an initial set of data and applying a mathematical or logical process to it
- We generated 10 data sets, which we used to run each of the models.
Topics Computersc2

Word Originearly 16th cent. (in the sense ‘beget, procreate’): from Latin generat- ‘created’, from the verb generare, from genus, gener- ‘stock, race’.

See generate in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee generate in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English

Check pronunciation: generate

Nearby words

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noun

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