Emulate
verbTo imitate someone or something, especially in an effort to match or surpass their qualities or performance.
How to spell emulate
7 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce emulate
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does emulate mean?
- verbTo imitate someone or something, especially in an effort to match or surpass their qualities or performance.
Emulate in a sentence
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Junior staff often try to emulate the calm manner of their best manager.
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The software can emulate an older console so vintage games still run.
Where does emulate come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word comes from the Latin verb aemulari, meaning 'to rival' or 'to strive to equal or excel', which was built on the adjective aemulus, meaning 'rivalling' or 'competing'. The original sense was strongly competitive: to emulate someone was to try to match or surpass them, often out of admiration mixed with ambition. English adopted the word in the late 1500s, keeping that flavour of imitating someone precisely because you respect their achievement. The same root gave us 'emulation', and in the computing age the meaning broadened so that one machine or program can 'emulate' another by reproducing its behaviour. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle vowel: it is spelled with a 'u' (emUlate), not the 'e' a speaker might expect.
How the word is built
- emul- (from Latin aemulus: rival, one who strives to equal)
- -ate (verb-forming suffix)
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