populate
verb /ˈpɒpjuleɪt/
/ˈpɑːpjuleɪt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they populate | /ˈpɒpjuleɪt/ /ˈpɑːpjuleɪt/ |
| he / she / it populates | /ˈpɒpjuleɪts/ /ˈpɑːpjuleɪts/ |
| past simple populated | /ˈpɒpjuleɪtɪd/ /ˈpɑːpjuleɪtɪd/ |
| past participle populated | /ˈpɒpjuleɪtɪd/ /ˈpɑːpjuleɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form populating | /ˈpɒpjuleɪtɪŋ/ /ˈpɑːpjuleɪtɪŋ/ |
- [often passive] populate something to live in an area and form its population synonym inhabit
- a heavily/densely/sparsely/thinly populated country
- The island is populated largely by sheep.
- (figurative) the amazing characters that populate her novels
- populate something to move people or animals to an area to live there
- The French began to populate the island in the 15th century.
- populate something (computing) to add data to a document
Word Originlate 16th cent.: from medieval Latin populat- ‘supplied with people’, from the verb populare, from populus ‘people’.