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
Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 16 Apr. 2025
President Donald Trump instigated tremendous volatility in the markets.
—Chicago Tribune, 14 Apr. 2025
Consequently, this role of relationship builder and business driver has instigated shifts within leading organizations requiring marketers to have a much sharper and more agile understanding of customers.
—Billee Howard, Forbes.com, 6 Apr. 2025
Furthermore, dismissing that underlying condition as mental illness can instigate the very illness being misdiagnosed.
—Shreyas Teegala, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Mar. 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 30 Apr. 2025.
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