delegate
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A person authorized to act as representative for another.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dehluhgaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɛləɡeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
A representative at a conference, etc.
us
An appointed representative in some legislative bodies.
A member of a governmental legislature who lacks voting power.
verb
intransitive
To commit tasks and responsibilities to others, especially subordinates.
transitive
To commit (a task or responsibility) to someone, especially a subordinate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
Used this way, delegate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use delegate
- “She will delegate tasks to her team members.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Authorizing subordinates to make certain decisions.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A representative of the Holy See in a country that has no formal diplomatic relations with it.
A union representative who visits workers at their jobs to see whether agreements are observed.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A group of representatives or delegates.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.