Animate

How to spell animate

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce animate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does animate mean?

1. verbTo bring something to life or fill it with energy and movement, including creating moving images frame by frame.
2. adjectiveLiving; possessing life, as opposed to inanimate matter.

Animate in a sentence

• verb

  The studio hired three artists to animate the new cartoon series.

• adjective

  The grammar lesson distinguished animate nouns from objects and substances.

• verb

  A good host can animate even the dullest dinner party.

• adjective

  Toddlers often treat their toys as if they were animate beings.

Where does animate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb animare, which meant 'to give breath to' or 'to bring to life', and that verb was built directly on the noun anima, meaning 'breath', 'air', or 'living soul'. The Romans saw breath and life as inseparable ideas, so anima covered both the literal air in the lungs and the vital spirit that made a creature alive. English took the word in during the late 1500s, first as an adjective describing something living, and soon afterwards as a verb meaning to enliven, energise, or set in motion. The same anima root still breathes through a whole family of English words, including 'animal', 'animation', and even 'unanimous' (literally 'of one mind'). Knowing that core 'anim' means life or breath helps fix the spelling, since the trap is the unstressed middle vowel, which is an 'i' rather than an 'a' or 'e'.

How the word is built

• anim- (from Latin anima: breath, soul, life)
• -ate (verb/adjective suffix)