activate

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti

Proto-Italic *agō

Latin agō

Proto-Indo-European *-wós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder.

Latin -īvus

▲

Ancient Greek ἐνεργητῐκός (energētĭkós)sl.

Latin āctīvusbor.

Old French actifbor.

Middle English actyf

English active

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātuslbor.

English -ate

English activate

From active + -ate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

activate (third-person singular simple present activates, present participle activating, simple past and past participle activated)

1. (transitive) To encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate.

   activate the economy

2. (transitive) To put a device, mechanism (alarm etc.) or system into action or motion; to trigger, to actuate, to set off, to enable.

   The pranksters activated the fire alarm by spraying deodorant next to it.

3. (transitive, chemistry, physics) To render more reactive; excite.
4. (transitive, biology) To render a molecule reactive, active, or effective in performing its function.
5. (transitive, physics) To render a substance radioactive.
6. (transitive, chemistry) To hasten a chemical reaction, especially by heating.
7. (transitive, computing, software) To remove the limitations of demoware by providing a license; to unlock.
8. (transitive) To aerate in order to aid decomposition of organic matter.
9. (transitive, military) To organize or create a military unit or station.

   A new squadron was activated.

10. (transitive, sports) To bring a player back after an injury.

Synonyms

• actuate
• enable
• get going
• set going
• set in motion
• set off
• spur
• start
• stimulate
• trigger
• turn on

Antonyms

• deactivate
• inactivate

Derived terms

• activable
• activatable
• activater
• activate someone's almonds
• activator
• activatory
• alloactivated
• autoactivate
• bioactivate
• bioactivating
• coactivate
• coactivated
• diactivated
• disactivate
• heteroactivate
• hyperactivate
• hyperactivated
• hypoactivate
• hypoactivated
• immunoactivating
• misactivate
• misactivated
• nonactivated
• nonactivating
• overactivate
• overactivated
• phosphoactivate
• photoactivate
• photoactivated
• pneumoactivate
• preactivate
• preactivated
• reactivate
• subactivating
• superactivate
• thermoactivated
• transactivate
• unactivated
• underactivate
• underactivated

Related terms

• activation

Translations

to put into operation

• Albanian: aktivizoj (sq)
• Arabic: فَعَّلَ (ar) (faʕʕala)
• Asturian: activar
• Basque: aktibatu
• Bengali: সক্রিয় করা (śokriẏo kora)
• Bulgarian: пускам (bg) (puskam), активирам (bg) (aktiviram)
• Catalan: activar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 激活 (zh) (jīhuó)

• Danish: aktivere
• Dutch: activeren (nl), aanzetten (nl), inschakelen (nl)
• Esperanto: aktivigi
• Estonian: rakendama
• Finnish: aktivoida (fi), käynnistää (fi)
• French: actionner (fr), activer (fr)
• Galician: activar (gl)
• German: aktivieren (de), freischalten (de)
• Greek: ενεργοποιώ (el) (energopoió) (ανοίγω (el) (anoígo))
• Hungarian: aktivál (hu), működésbe hoz (hu)
• Indonesian: mengaktifkan (id)
• Kazakh: активтендіру (aktivtendıru)
• Kyrgyz: жандыруу (ky) (jandıruu)
• Māori: whakahohe, whakaharuru
• Marathi: सक्रिय करावे (sakriy karāve)
• Norman: activiser
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: aktivere (no), aktivisere (no)

• Persian: انجامیدن (fa) (anjâmidan), فعال کردن (faâl kardan), کنشور کردن (konešvar kardan), کاری کردن (kâri kardan), کناییدن (konāyidan)
• Polish: aktywować (pl) impf or pf, uaktywniać impf, uaktywnić pf
• Portuguese: ativar (pt)
• Romanian: activa (ro)
• Russian: активизи́ровать (ru) impf or pf (aktivizírovatʹ), активи́ровать (ru) impf or pf (aktivírovatʹ), приводи́ть в де́йствие impf (privodítʹ v déjstvije), привести́ в де́йствие pf (privestí v déjstvije), включа́ть (ru) impf (vključátʹ), включи́ть (ru) pf (vključítʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: aktivírati (sh)
• Slovene: aktivirati, vključiti
• Spanish: activar (es)
• Swedish: aktivera (sv)
• Turkish: etkinleştirmek (tr)

to activate a software functionality — see enable

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 使活动 (shǐ huódòng), ^{(please verify)} 啟動 / 启动 (zh) (qǐdòng), ^{(please verify)} 启动 (zh) (qǐdòng) (qǐdòng), ^{(please verify)} 触发 (zh) (chùfā) (chùfā)

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} activar
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} attivare (it)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 活性化する (かっせいかする, kasseika suru)
• Volapük: ^{(please verify)} dunotön

Anagrams

• cavitate

Spanish

Verb

activate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of activar combined with te