Elevate

How to spell elevate

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce elevate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does elevate mean?

1. verbTo raise something to a higher position, level, or status.

Elevate in a sentence

• The physiotherapist told him to elevate his injured leg above his heart.

• The new manager hopes to elevate the team to the top of the league.

Where does elevate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb elevare, meaning 'to lift up' or 'to raise', which was built from the prefix e- (a form of ex-, meaning 'up' or 'out') combined with levare, 'to make light' or 'to raise'. That root levare in turn grew from levis, the Latin word for 'light' (as in not heavy), so the underlying image is of lifting a burden that has been made lighter. English took the word in during the 1400s, at first in the literal sense of raising something physically and soon afterwards in the figurative sense of raising someone in rank or improving their condition. The same levare root quietly survives in relatives like 'lever', 'levity', and even 'relieve', all of which carry that idea of lifting or lightening. Remembering that the middle is built on lev (to lift) helps fix the single l and the e-l-e opening, which writers sometimes muddle.

How the word is built

• e- (variant of ex-: up, out)
• lev (raise, lift, from Latin levare)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)