generate

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ɚ.eɪt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒen(a)reːʈ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛnəreːt/
  • (Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): [ˈdʑɛnəɹɛ(ː)t]

Verb

generate (third-person singular simple present generates, present participle generating, simple past and past participle generated)

1. (transitive) To bring into being; give rise to.

   The discussion generated an uproar.

   • 1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 126:

     The Ecclesiastical Commission was generated by Sir Robert Peel and bore the marks of Peel’s personality; bureaucratic, capable and cold.

   • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian:

     In the last 20 minutes Athletic began to generate the sort of pressure of which they are capable, but by then it was far too late: the game had begun to slip away from them as early as the seventh minute.

   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them […] is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

2. (transitive) To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process.

   Adding concentrated sulphuric acid to water generates heat.

3. (transitive) To procreate, beget.

   They generated many offspring.

4. (transitive, mathematics) To form a figure from a curve or solid.

   Rotating a circle generates a sphere.

5. (intransitive) To appear or occur; be generated.
   • 1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers:

     Mrs. Fennel, seeing the steam begin to generate on the countenances of her guests, crossed over and touched the fiddler's elbow and put her hand on the serpent's mouth.

Adjective

generate (not comparable)

2. (rare) generated, begotten
   • 1965, R. A. Norris, God & World in Early Chrisian Theology, volume ii. 67:

     It poses the thorny problem of the status of the Logos. Is he generate or ingenerate?.. Justin replies that he is generate—but in a special sense.

   • 1543 (1464), John Hardyng, Chronicle of John Hardyng, page 282:

     Edwarde his sonne & heire first generate..Crouned was in all royall estate.