mutate

verb

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mu·tate | \ ˈmyü-ˌtāt

, myü-ˈtāt

mutated; mutating

Definition of mutate

intransitive verb

: to undergo mutation

transitive verb

: to cause to undergo mutation

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Examples of mutate in a Sentence

a disease that mutates genes in humans a group of mutated genes Over time, her feelings mutated from hatred into love. opera singers mutating into pop stars

Recent Examples on the Web Gamers' impatience—the release date had been postponed once already—begins to mutate into indignation. — Darryn King, Wired, "The Last of Us Part II and Its Crisis-Strewn Path to Release," 10 June 2020 One larger goal behind the Princeton lab’s experiments is to better understand the motion of bacteria in various environments, which could help elucidate how microbes mutate to develop antibiotic resistance, says Austin. — Sophia Chen, Wired, "These Bacteria Ate Their Way Through a Really Tricky Maze," 9 June 2020 As viruses mutate into new strains, their RNA changes, so scientists can find their spot on the family tree and figure out where a particular version of the virus originated. — Lina Zeldovich/undark, Popular Science, "COVID-19 surface tests can’t make public spaces safe just yet," 15 May 2020 That makes sense, so long as the spike does not mutate much. — oregonlive, "Coronavirus immunity seems to be limited, and that has consequences for vaccines and antibody tests," 13 May 2020 Catching influenza, on the other hand, doesn't do much to protect you from next year's flu wave, because the flu virus mutates quickly, and because the body starts to wind down production of flu antibodies after six months or so. — Matt Jancer, Wired, "Everything We Know About Covid-19 Antibody Tests (So Far)," 5 May 2020 Flu shots have to be given every year because the influenza virus mutates. — Nicole Brown, CBS News, "What we know — and don't know — about immunity to the coronavirus," 1 May 2020 In the mid-2000s, planners began to focus on the possibility that the highly virulent H5N1 bird flu would mutate to become easily transmissible among humans. — Andrew Lakoff, The Conversation, "Coronavirus: Strategic National Stockpile was ready, but not for this," 2 Apr. 2020 Scientists say the virus is not mutating quickly, suggesting a vaccine would offer lasting protection against it. — Eliza Mackintosh, CNN, "What you need to know about coronavirus on Wednesday, March 25," 25 Mar. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mutate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.