Correlate

How to spell correlate

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce correlate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does correlate mean?

1. verbTo show or have a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.
2. nounEither of two things that are mutually related or that imply each other.

Correlate in a sentence

• verb

  The study tried to correlate income levels with reported happiness.

• noun

  Poor sleep can be a correlate of long working hours.

• verb

  Sales figures clearly correlate with the weeks of heavy advertising.

• noun

  In the data, customer loyalty appeared as a direct correlate of good service.

Where does correlate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word was built in English in the seventeenth century by joining the prefix cor-, a form of the Latin com- meaning 'together' or 'with', to the verb 'relate'. 'Relate' itself goes back to the Latin relatus, the past participle of referre, which literally meant 'to carry back' or 'to bring back', and so came to mean 'to report' or 'to connect in the telling'. Putting the two together gives the sense of two things carried back to one another, that is, standing in mutual relation. The form was probably modelled on medieval Latin correlativus, used by scholars to describe pairs of terms (like parent and child) that imply each other. The doubled r is the spelling trap, and it comes straight from that cor- prefix: the m of com- assimilated to the r of relate, so two r letters meet. Statisticians later gave it its precise modern sense of a measurable connection between two variables.

How the word is built

• cor- (variant of com-, together)
• relate (from Latin relatus, 'brought back, reported', the past participle of referre)