1
as in to trace
to draw or make apparent the outline of
the man's roly-poly shape was softly delineated by the glow of the fire
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in to describe
to give a representation or account of in words
the story does a remarkable job of delineating the emotions that immigrants feel upon their arrival in a strange country
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of delineate
The force of Quincy’s essay resided not in rehearsing this full litany of offenses for The Atlantic’s readers but in delineating its implications.
—
Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, 12 Feb. 2026
Humans couldn’t delineate such borders in several lifetimes, but the algorithm did it in hours.
—Amber Dance, Quanta Magazine, 9 Feb. 2026
At Wednesday’s hearing, Roth asked the judge to drop a terrorism enhancement to the charges, saying that the law does not explicitly delineate presidential candidates as potential victims of terrorism.
—Claire Heddles, Miami Herald, 4 Feb. 2026
To delineate the murine C3aR coding sequence, gene structure, 5′-flanking region, and chromosome location, cDNA and genomic clones encoding the mouse C3a receptor were isolated, characterized, and used in fluorescence in situ hybridization experiments.
—Kirstin R.w. Matthews, STAT, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for delineate
Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, 12 Feb. 2026
Humans couldn’t delineate such borders in several lifetimes, but the algorithm did it in hours.
—Amber Dance, Quanta Magazine, 9 Feb. 2026
At Wednesday’s hearing, Roth asked the judge to drop a terrorism enhancement to the charges, saying that the law does not explicitly delineate presidential candidates as potential victims of terrorism.
—Claire Heddles, Miami Herald, 4 Feb. 2026
To delineate the murine C3aR coding sequence, gene structure, 5′-flanking region, and chromosome location, cDNA and genomic clones encoding the mouse C3a receptor were isolated, characterized, and used in fluorescence in situ hybridization experiments.
—Kirstin R.w. Matthews, STAT, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for delineate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for delineate
Verb
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Shane traces that fear back to a specific moment in eighth grade, in a Claire’s on the Upper West Side.—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
14 Mar. 2026
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Police traced the car through a license plate reader system to Starks’s girlfriend.—
Meredith Colias-Pete,
Chicago Tribune,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
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So too is a work ethic peers often describe as relentless, paired with a preternatural optimism that keeps him pushing through setbacks.—
Douglas Robson,
Los Angeles Times,
9 Mar. 2026
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HostArmada's dedicated options are managed cloud servers, unlike the bare-metal hardware previously described.—
Gabriel Zamora,
PC Magazine,
8 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Steyer has spent millions of his own money on ads defining himself and, in recent weeks, attacking Swalwell for missing congressional votes.—
Ben Paviour,
Sacbee.com,
13 Mar. 2026
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Burnout, distraction and cognitive fatigue are becoming defining challenges of the digital era.—
Elan Gepner-Dales,
Rolling Stone,
13 Mar. 2026
Verb
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One passage depicts the Bonnie-and-Clyde-like notoriety of Frank and the Bride, leading ordinary women to adopt her wild hairdo and goth makeup (including what are evidently meant to be burns on her mouth and tongue from all that electricity).—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
13 Mar. 2026
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The inlay murals are particularly noteworthy, evoking chinoiserie without actually depicting anything too Orientalist.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
12 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Organizers have yet to outline departure arrangements for the players, who traveled to Australia only days before the US-Israeli war against Iran erupted.—
Swati Pandey,
Bloomberg,
8 Mar. 2026
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The Arcadis report finds an impenetrable surface cover outlined in the next option, Alternative 5, to be unfeasible due to the site’s topography and other floodplain issues.—
Frederick Melo,
Twin Cities,
8 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In the film, Buckley portrays William Shakespeare's wife, who grapples with grief after losing their son, Hamnet, to the plague.—
Angeline Jane Bernabe,
ABC News,
10 Mar. 2026
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With his leading-man looks nerded down with spectacles, science T-shirts and a planet Earth hacky sack, Gosling portrays Grace as a teacher way out of his element amid hardcore NASA types.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
10 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Delineate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/delineate. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.
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