ventilate
verb
Simple meaning
To circulate air through a building.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vehntuhlaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈvɛntəleɪt
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
To circulate air through a building, etc.
Furnish with an opening to allow air to circulate or gas to escape
“The architect did not think about ventilating the storage space.”
To replace stale or noxious air with fresh.
Circulate through and freshen
“The gust of air ventilated the room.”
To provide with a vent.
Expose to cool or cold air so as to cool or freshen
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 circulate air through a building, etc.
Used this way, ventilate 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.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Circulateverb
“The gust of air ventilated the room.”
Furnishverb
“The architect did not think about ventilating the storage space.”
More ways to use ventilate
- “The gust of air ventilated the room.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Provide
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Exposed to air.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A device (such as a fan) that introduces fresh air or expels foul air.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A mechanical system in a building that provides fresh air.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.