Relate

How to spell relate

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce relate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does relate mean?

1. verbTo establish or recognise a connection between things, or to feel a sympathetic understanding of someone or something.
2. verbTo tell or describe a sequence of events to someone.

Relate in a sentence

• Many readers relate to characters who struggle with money.

• She paused to relate the events of that strange evening.

• The report tries to relate rising prices to the recent fuel shortage.

• The witness was asked to relate exactly what happened.

Where does relate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb traces back to the Latin relatus, the past participle of referre, which literally meant 'to carry back' or 'to bring back', formed from re- 'back' and the verb ferre 'to carry'. Curiously, latus is a suppletive past participle borrowed into ferre from an unrelated root, which is why the spelling has a 'lat' element rather than anything resembling 'fer'. English took the word in during the sixteenth century, first in the sense of telling or recounting something, the idea of carrying a report back to a listener. From there it broadened to mean connecting one thing to another, and in modern usage to feeling a personal connection or sympathy. The same Latin latus surfaces in close relatives such as 'translate' (carry across) and 'relation', which helps explain the steady single 't' before the final 'e'.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• lat (carried, from Latin latus)
• -e