dilate
verb
Simple meaning
To become wider or larger.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dylaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
daɪˈleɪt
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.
verb
intransitive
To become wider or larger; to expand.
transitive
To enlarge; to make bigger.
ambitransitive
To speak largely and copiously; to dwell in narration; to enlarge; with "on" or "upon".
transitive
To prolong, lengthen.
transitive
To delay, defer.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To become wider or larger; to expand.
Used this way, dilate 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
- No strong connotation
- 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 dilate
- “His pupils were dilated.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A surgical procedure usually performed under local anesthesia in which the cervix is dilated and the endometrial lining of the uterus is scraped with a curet.
A surgical procedure usually performed under local anesthesia in which the cervix is dilated and the endometrial lining of the uterus is scraped with a curet.
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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.