Definition of mutate
: 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 of mutate from the Web
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How the light from the distant star flickers and mutates over time will provide a wealth of information about any inner planets.
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Like most ’80s games, Rampage came with an extremely minimal backstory — the three playable monsters all used to be human, but were each mutated by something different.
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After a space lab carrying deadly experimental pathogens breaks up and crash-lands at various points on the U.S. map, the animals become infected, and mutate, and get ornery.
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Throw in a heaping pile of spaceflight, where exposure to higher levels of radiation necessarily mutates DNA more quickly, and the truly surprising result would be seeing no difference between Mark’s and Scott’s genetic sequences.
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Track trends—specifically, how the virus is mutating (U.S. officials recently spotted young swine-flu patients having seizures).
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The benevolent radiation from its metal mutates the flora, fauna and possibly the people; this spurs scientific and engineering development that makes Wakanda the most technologically advanced nation on Earth.
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The most common circulating viruses might mutate after the WHO chooses its reference strains in February.
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To the consternation of the Ukrainian leader, though, the conflict with pro-Russian separatists is slowly mutating in the public mind from a heroic struggle into yet another sinkhole of profiteering and graft.
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.
Origin and Etymology of mutate
Latin mutatus, past participle of mutare
NEW! Time Traveler
First Known Use: 1818
in the meaning defined at intransitive sense
See Words from the same yearMUTATE Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of mutate for English Language Learners
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biology : to cause (a gene) to change and create an unusual characteristic in a plant or animal : to cause mutation in (a gene)
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: to change and cause an unusual characteristic to develop in a plant or animal
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: to change into something very different
MUTATE Defined for Kids
Definition of mutate for Students
mutated;
mutating
: to undergo genetic mutation
Medical Dictionary
medical Definition of mutate
: to cause to undergo mutation
Learn More about mutate
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See words that rhyme with mutate Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for mutate Spanish Central: Translation of mutate Nglish: Translation of mutate for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of mutate for Arabic speakers
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