Coordinate

How to spell coordinate

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce coordinate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coordinate mean?

1. verbTo organise different people or things so that they work together effectively.
2. nounA number used together with others to fix the position of a point on a grid or map.
3. adjectiveEqual in rank or importance within a structure or system.

Coordinate in a sentence

• verb

  The project manager will coordinate the work of three separate teams.

• noun

  Each coordinate on the graph tells you exactly where to plot the point.

• adjective

  The two departments hold coordinate authority over the shared budget.

• verb

  Volunteers were asked to coordinate the delivery of meals across the city.

• noun

  The rescue team entered the grid coordinate into their navigation system.

• adjective

  A sentence may join two coordinate clauses of equal weight.

Where does coordinate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the Latin prefix co-, a form of cum meaning 'together' or 'jointly', joined to the noun ordo, ordinis, which meant 'order', 'rank' or 'a row'. From ordo the Romans formed the verb ordinare, 'to set in order' or 'to arrange', and the related Latin ordinatio described an arranging. In the seventeenth century scholars writing in Latin coined coordinare to mean ranking or arranging things together as equals, and English took it over in the mid 1600s, at first carrying the sense of 'of equal rank'. From that idea of fitting separate things into one shared arrangement came both the everyday verb 'to organise jointly' and the mathematical noun, the value that fixes a point's place in a system. The same ordo root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'order', 'ordinary' and 'subordinate', which is a useful reminder that the heart of the word is spelled ord, with the doubled o coming only from the joined-on co- prefix.

How the word is built

• co- (together, jointly)
• ordin- (from Latin ordo, ordin-: order, rank, arrangement)
• -ate (verb/adjective suffix)