instigate
verb
Did you know?
It's time to investigate the true meaning of instigate. Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in "siblings instigating a fight"), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring something up that one did not necessarily initiate ("the court's decision incited riots"), while instigate implies responsibility for initiating or encouraging someone else's action, and usually suggests dubious or underhanded intent ("he was charged with instigating a conspiracy"). Coming from a form of the Latin verb instigare ("to urge on or provoke"), instigate stepped into English in the 1500s, roughly a century after incite.
Examples of instigate in a Sentence
JSTOR Daily, 17 Oct. 2025
Prosecutors say Carlos Maldonado instigated the beating of a 14-year-old boy last October and also negligently fired off a gun in February of this year.
—City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Oct. 2025
Operators like Wu instigate wider adoption, and recent laws, such as the CHIPS & Science Act, now focus on both the research and development needed to produce results.
—K. H. Koehler, USA Today, 15 Oct. 2025
Serious flooding like what happened in 2018 because of a similar forecast instigated by remnants of Hurricane Rosa could happen in the region, the WPC said.
—Chris Dolce, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for instigate
Cite this Entry
“Instigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/instigate. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.
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