inoculate
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine into something or someone, that produce immunity to a specific disease.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnahkyuhlaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈnɑkjəleɪt
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
transitiveimmunology
To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine into something (e.g. the body) or someone, such as to produce immunity to a specific disease.
Introduce an idea or attitude into the mind of
“My teachers inoculated me with their beliefs.”
Introduce a microorganism into
transitiveby extension
To safeguard or protect something as if by inoculation.
transitive
To add one substance to another.
transitive
To graft by inserting buds.
noun
Synonym of inoculum.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (transitive, immunology) To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine into something (e.g. the body) or someone, such as to produce immunity to a specific disease.
Used this way, inoculate is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It turns up most in medicine or healthcare contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine into something (e.g. the body) or someone, such as to produce immunity….
To inoculate someone, and thus produce immunity from a disease.
To treat (a person or an animal) with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease.
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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.