Word.ws English Dictionary

activating

activating is the present participle and gerund of activate.

Meaning of activate

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) To render more reactive; excite.
  4. (transitive) To render a molecule reactive, active, or effective in performing its function.
  5. (transitive) To render a substance radioactive.
  6. (transitive) To hasten a chemical reaction, especially by heating.

See all 11 meanings of activate

Questions about activating

What is activating the present participle and gerund of?
Activating is the present participle and gerund of activate.

Words near activating in the dictionary

  1. activated sludge
  2. activated sludges
  3. activater
  4. activaters
  5. activates
  6. activating
  7. activation
  8. activation analyses
  9. activation analysis
  10. activation energies
  11. activation energy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: activating (page history and authors); activate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “activating.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/activating. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.