Trending Now:
More Trending:
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
the psychotic would repeatedly ideate the act of committing murder, and eventually he came to believe his own delusions
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ideate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Like idea and ideal, ideate comes from the Greek verb idein, which means "to see." The sight-thought connection came courtesy of Plato, the Greek philosopher who based his theory of the ideal on the concept of seeing, claiming that a true philosopher can see the essential nature of things and can recognize their ideal form or state. Early uses of idea, ideal, and ideate in English were associated with Platonic philosophy; idea meant "an archetype" or "a standard of perfection," ideal meant "existing as an archetype," and ideate referred to forming Platonic ideas. But though ideate is tied to ancient philosophy, the word itself is a modern concoction, relatively speaking. It first appeared in English only about 400 years ago.
1610
See words that rhyme with ideate Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for ideate
What made you want to look up ideate? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Merriam-Webster's New Words Quiz—Fall 2017 Edition!
Test your visual vocabulary with our 10-question challenge!
TAKE THE QUIZTest Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
TAKE THE QUIZ
