populate

verb

pop·​u·​late ˈpä-pyə-ˌlāt 

populated; populating

transitive verb

1

: to have a place in : occupy, inhabit

Strange creatures populate the deep ocean.

2

a

: to furnish or provide with inhabitants : people

… there were survivors, and their descendants populate the world today.

—Walter Alvarez

b

: to provide with members

Synonyms of populate

• inhabit
• people

Examples of populate in a Sentence

Immigrants began to populate the area in the late 19th century.

Strange creatures populate the ocean depths.

Recent Examples on the Web

Their advice includes properly disposing of garbage, hazing bears away from areas populated by humans and never allowing the animals to eat human food or trash, per South Tahoe Now. —Latoya Gayle, PEOPLE, 15 Nov. 2025

The riverboat, meanwhile, continues its drift towards the bridge, which is populated with bystanders (and one really cute corgi). —Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Nov. 2025

Musk, expressing frustrations similar to those of GOP lawmakers regarding Wikipedia’s trajectory, recently launched an alternative to the website that relies on his Grok AI model to populate pages. —Robert Schmad, The Washington Examiner, 14 Nov. 2025

Bullies take many shapes and forms, pushy clients, domineering partners and uncooperative internals, filling out a murderer’s row of enough antagonists to populate Death Wish and its four increasingly campy sequels. —Paul Fitzgerald, Rolling Stone, 13 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin populātus, past participle of populāre "to provide with inhabitants,", derivative of Latin populus people entry 1

First Known Use

1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for populate

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• adsorbate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate

Kids Definition

populate

verb

pop·​u·​late ˈpäp-yə-ˌlāt 

populated; populating

1

: to have a place in : occupy, inhabit

2

: to provide with inhabitants : people