as in to inhabit
to supply with inhabitants
a small island populated only by woodland creatures
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of populate
With edge-of-seat action and populated by dangerous characters, this is a world of money and power never seen before.
—
Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 18 Sep. 2025
One suspects if a character picked up a newspaper, it’d be populated with lorem ipsum.
—Thomas Page, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
The West became an order within an order, a club of market democracies nested within a more encompassing global system populated by large membership organizations such as the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
—Stewart Patrick, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2025
Less than two miles to the south, smaller but densely populated camps in Gaza City's Al-Zaytoun and Tuffah neighborhoods have also emptied out compared to the beginning of September, images show.
—Camilla Alcini, ABC News, 17 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for populate
Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 18 Sep. 2025
One suspects if a character picked up a newspaper, it’d be populated with lorem ipsum.
—Thomas Page, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
The West became an order within an order, a club of market democracies nested within a more encompassing global system populated by large membership organizations such as the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
—Stewart Patrick, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2025
Less than two miles to the south, smaller but densely populated camps in Gaza City's Al-Zaytoun and Tuffah neighborhoods have also emptied out compared to the beginning of September, images show.
—Camilla Alcini, ABC News, 17 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for populate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for populate
Verb
-
The project alternates between details of everyday life—imbued with a surreal, universal quality—and delicate, melancholic landscapes alongside portraits of figures suspended in time, inhabiting their own oneiric world.—
Caterina De Biasio,
Vogue,
24 Sep. 2025
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The team that inhabits it is often called inevitable — immune to pressure and impossible to put away.—
Chandler Rome,
New York Times,
21 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Diamandis’s network, known to its constituents as the Peterverse, is largely peopled by slim, graying, well-off men who finger their Oura rings like horcruxes.—
Tad Friend,
New Yorker,
4 Aug. 2025
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The mountains are peopled with guides, trail keepers and fellow travelers, as well as those who have died on their treks when the weather turned.—
Sadie Stein,
New York Times,
6 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Populate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/populate. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.
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