Operate

How to spell operate

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce operate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does operate mean?

1. verbTo control the working of a machine, system, or process, or to function in a particular way.
2. verbTo perform surgery on a patient.

Operate in a sentence

• Only trained staff may operate the forklift in the warehouse.

• The surgeons decided to operate on her knee the following morning.

• The heating system will operate automatically once the timer is set.

• Doctors will operate only if the medication fails to reduce the swelling.

Where does operate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin operari, meaning 'to work' or 'to labour', which was built on the noun opus, meaning a 'work' or a 'task' (the same opus that musicians still use to number their compositions). The Latin past participle operatus gave English the verb form, and it entered the language in the early 1600s carrying the broad sense of 'to be at work' or 'to produce an effect'. Over time it specialised in several directions: by the 1700s it described how machines and forces work, and by the 1800s the medical meaning of performing surgery had taken hold. The related words 'opera', 'operation', and 'cooperate' all trace back to the same opus root. For spelling, it helps to remember the steady oper- base and the plain -ate ending, with no doubling and no hidden letters.

How the word is built

• oper- (from opus/operari: work)
• -ate (verb suffix)