Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to operate
Participle: operated
Gerund: operating
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | operate |
| you | operate |
| he;she;it | operates |
| we | operate |
| you | operate |
| they | operate |
Perfect
| I | have operated |
| you | have operated |
| he;she;it | has operated |
| we | have operated |
| you | have operated |
| they | have operated |
Past
| I | operated |
| you | operated |
| he;she;it | operated |
| we | operated |
| you | operated |
| they | operated |
Pluperfect
| I | had operated |
| you | had operated |
| he;she;it | had operated |
| we | had operated |
| you | had operated |
| they | had operated |
Future
| I | will operate |
| you | will operate |
| he;she;it | will operate |
| we | will operate |
| you | will operate |
| they | will operate |
Future Perfect
| I | will have operated |
| you | will have operated |
| he;she;it | will have operated |
| we | will have operated |
| you | will have operated |
| they | will have operated |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | operate |
| you | operate |
| he;she;it | operate |
| we | operate |
| you | operate |
| they | operate |
Perfect
| I | have operated |
| you | have operated |
| he;she;it | have operated |
| we | have operated |
| you | have operated |
| they | have operated |
Imperfect
| I | operated |
| you | operated |
| he;she;it | operated |
| we | operated |
| you | operated |
| they | operated |
Pluperfect
| I | had operated |
| you | had operated |
| he;she;it | had operated |
| we | had operated |
| you | had operated |
| they | had operated |
Conditional
Present
| I | would operate |
| you | would operate |
| he;she;it | would operate |
| we | would operate |
| you | would operate |
| they | would operate |
Perfect
| I | would have operated |
| you | would have operated |
| he;she;it | would have operated |
| we | would have operated |
| you | would have operated |
| they | would have operated |
Imperative
| you | operate |
| we | Let's operate |
| you | operate |
Verbs conjugated like 'operate'
abacinate,
abalienate,
abase,
abate,
abbreviate,
abdicate,
abduce,
aberrate,
aberuncate,
abirritate,
abjudge,
abjudicate,
abjugate,
abjure,
ablactate,
ablaqueate,
able,
ablegate,
abligate,
abnegate, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'operate'
onerate,
sperate,
aerate,
asperate,
berate,
cooperate,
coöperate,
derate,
epurate,
iterate,
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
- work
- drive, act, behave, handle, run, turn, use, roll
- function
- conduct, manage, administer, perform, command, serve, revolve
- produce
- fulfill, cause, effect, occasion
- move
- progress, advance, proceed, go
- contact
- hit, engage
- convey
- transport, contain
- remove
- install, plant, deposit, place
Antonyms
- work
- idleness, leisure, rest, inertia
- function
- ignore, mismanage, misuse, unemployment
- produce
- destroy, ruin, squelch, subdue
- move
- halt, fix, arrest, cease
- contact
- disconnection, isolation, distance, separation
- convey
- retain, hold, keep, preserve
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. 1606, "to be in effect," from L. operari "to work, labor" (in L.L. "to have effect, be active, cause"), see operation. Surgical sense is first attested 1799. Meaning "to work machinery" is from 1864 in Amer.Eng. Operator is first recorded 1597, "one who performs mechanical or surgical operations." Meaning "one who carries on business shrewdly" is from 1828. Specific sense of "one who works a telephone switchboard" (1884) grew out of earlier meaning "one who works a telegraph" (1847).
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-
4. Proto-Indo-European *-os
5. Proto-Indo-European *h₃épos
6. Proto-Italic *opos
7. Latin opus
8. Latin opera
9. Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
10. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
11. Proto-Indo-European *-tós
12. Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos
13. Proto-Italic *-ātos
14. Latin -ātus
15. Latin operātusder.
16. English operate
17. From Latin operātus, perfect passive participle of operor (“to work, labor, toil, have effect”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Sample Sentences
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Could someone explain how this meeting operates?
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In this town, the garbage removal staff operate between six o'clock at midnight.
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The police had inside knowledge of how the gang operated.
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We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year. [2012 January 26, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 23:]
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The drug operates by facilitating the negative neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), resulting in the blocking of neural long-term potentiation. [2010, Peter A. Frensch, Ralf Schwarzer, Cognition and Neuropsychology:]
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The Virtues of private Perſons, how Bright and Exemplary ſoever, operate but on Few; on thoſe only who are near enough to obſerve, and inclin'd to imitate them: their ſphere of Action is narrow, and their Influence is confin'd to it. [1706 September 18 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preach’d in the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Sept. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, →OCLC, page 405:]
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A plain, convincing reason operates on the mind both of a learned and ignorant hearer as long as they live. [1720, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman:]
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Strictures upon style, which are for the most part good, but time has operated a change in many respects even since he wrote. [1830 March 24, Charles Francis Adams Sr., Massachusetts Historical Society: Adams Papers Digital Edition, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2022, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3:]
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It is supposed that western Europe was overpopulated and that the crusades operated a beneficial reduction of numbers. [1906, William Graham Sumner, Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals, Boston: Ginn and Co., archived from the original on 02 May 2024, page 212:]
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The surgeon had to operate on her heart.
-
I'm being operated tomorrow.
-
to operate a machine
-
to operate a system
-
to operate a casino
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Termokarstovoye is 250 km east of Tarkosale where Novatek operates a processing facility for its own onshore production. [2009 June 25, Uchenna Izundu, “Total, Novatek to develop Termokarstovoye gas field”, in Oil & Gas Journal, archived from the original on 17 May 2024:]
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Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. [2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:]