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percolate

verb

Simple meaning

Cause to pass through a permeable substance to extract a soluble constituent.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

purkuhlayt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɝkəleɪt

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance in order to extract a soluble constituent

  2. transitive

    To pass a liquid through a porous substance; to filter.

  3. intransitive

    To drain or seep through a porous substance.

  4. transitive

    To make (coffee) in a percolator.

  5. intransitiveof coffee

    To be prepared by percolation; (of a coffee pot) to brew coffee in this way.

  6. Prepare in a percolator

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance in order to extract a soluble constituent

Used this way, percolate 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 percolate

  • “Light percolated into our house in the morning.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Cause / pass

percolate throughwater percolate

Spread

percolate slowly

Other combinations

percolate downwardpercolate upward

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance in order to extract a soluble constituent

leachpermeate

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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.