ideate

verb

ide·ate ˈī-dē-ˌāt

ideated; ideating

Synonyms of ideate next

transitive verb

: to form an idea or conception of

intransitive verb

: to form an idea

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See the Origin of Ideate

Like idea and ideal, ideate comes from the Greek verb idein, which means “to see.” The sight-thought connection came courtesy of Plato, the Greek philosopher who based his theory of the ideal on the concept of seeing, claiming that a true philosopher can see the essential nature of things and can recognize their ideal form or state. Early uses of idea, ideal, and ideate in English were associated with Platonic philosophy; idea meant “an archetype” or “a standard of perfection,” ideal meant “existing as an archetype,” and ideate referred to forming Platonic ideas. But though ideate is tied to ancient philosophy, the word itself is a modern concoction, relatively speaking. It first appeared in English only about 400 years ago.

Examples of ideate in a Sentence

the psychotic would repeatedly ideate the act of committing murder, and eventually he came to believe his own delusions

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thanks to its efforts — first in ideating $GOAT and then promoting it — $GOAT now sits comfortably within the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. —

Sandy Carter, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024 Many of them resent giving up the flexibility of hybrid or fully at-home work in favor of ideating in an open-concept office in hard pants. —

Jolie Myers, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018 Make sure to have fun when ideating and creating your family Halloween costume. —

Casey Clark, Parents, 20 Sep. 2024 His primary role is to ideate and drive the Edge Solution Strategy,... —

John Lockhart, Forbes, 11 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for ideate