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relate

verb

Simple meaning

Make a logical or causal connection.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rihlayt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹɪˈleɪt

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. Have or establish a relationship to

    “She relates well to her peers.”

  2. transitive

    To bring into a relation, association, or connection (between one thing and another).

  3. Make a logical or causal connection

  4. transitive

    To tell in a descriptive way.

  5. intransitive

    To have a connection.

  6. intransitive

    To interact.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To bring into a relation, association, or connection (between one thing and another).

Used this way, relate 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 relate

  • “She relates well to her peers.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

relate directly

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • relatedadjectiveInflected form

    Being connected either logically or causally or by shared characteristics.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • relativeadjectiveDerived adjective

    Estimated by comparison.

  • relativelyadverbDerived adverb

    In a relative manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: have or establish a relationship to

concernconnectlinkassociate

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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.