Dilute

How to spell dilute

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dilute

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dilute mean?

1. verbTo make a liquid thinner or weaker by adding water or another fluid, or figuratively to reduce the strength or impact of something.
2. adjectiveMade thinner or weaker, especially a chemical solution with a low concentration.

Dilute in a sentence

• verb

  The recipe says to dilute the concentrate with three parts water.

• adjective

  Clean the wound with a dilute antiseptic solution.

• verb

  Issuing extra shares will dilute the value of every existing stake.

• adjective

  The lab stored a dilute acid for the routine tests.

Where does dilute come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Dilute comes from the Latin verb diluere, which meant literally to wash away or to wash apart, formed from the prefix dis- (apart, away) joined to luere (to wash). The same luere root for washing also gives us words such as ablution and deluge, so the family is bound together by the idea of water and cleansing. By the time the word reached English in the middle of the sixteenth century, the sense had narrowed from washing away to thinning a liquid by mixing in water or another fluid. From there it spread into figurative use, so that one can dilute the strength of an argument or the quality of a brand just as easily as a chemical solution. The single 'l' and the 'u' before 't' trip many writers, but remembering the washing root luere helps fix the spelling.

How the word is built

• di- (apart, away)
• lute (from Latin luere: to wash)
• -e