Participate

How to spell participate

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce participate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does participate mean?

1. verbTo take part in an activity or event along with others.

Participate in a sentence

• Every employee is encouraged to participate in the annual safety review.

• Only members who participate in the discussion will be eligible for the prize draw.

Where does participate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb participare, which meant 'to share in' or 'to partake of'. That verb was built on the noun particeps, meaning 'one who takes part', itself a tidy fusion of pars (genitive partis), meaning 'a part' or 'a share', and capere, meaning 'to take' or 'to seize'. So at its root the word literally describes taking your part of something. English adopted it in the late 1500s, partly through Latin directly and partly reinforced by French forms, replacing an earlier shorter verb 'participate' that had circulated even before then. The same capere root for 'taking' lurks inside a whole family of English words such as capture, accept, and recipe, while pars gives us part, partial, and party. Remembering that hidden 'cip' comes from capere helps explain why the middle of the word is spelled with that softer 'c' rather than an 's'.

How the word is built

• parti- (from pars/partis: part)
• cip- (from capere: to take)
• -ate (verb suffix)