Innovate

How to spell innovate

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce innovate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does innovate mean?

1. verbTo introduce new methods, ideas, or products.

Innovate in a sentence

• Small firms often innovate faster than large corporations.

• The company must innovate constantly to stay ahead of rivals.

Where does innovate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb innovare, meaning 'to renew' or 'to make new', which combined the prefix in-, here acting as an intensifier meaning roughly 'into', with novus, the ordinary Latin word for 'new'. The literal sense was something like 'to bring in something new', and in late Latin it often carried the idea of renewing or refreshing rather than inventing from scratch. English adopted it in the sixteenth century, at first with that older flavour of renewal and change, before it settled into its modern meaning of introducing fresh methods, products, or ideas. The same novus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'novel', 'novelty', and 'renovate', all of which share the same core notion of newness. Remembering that nov means 'new' helps with the spelling: a single n after the prefix, then the nov core, then the plain -ate ending.

How the word is built

• in- (into/intensive)
• nov (new, from Latin novus)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)