Word.ws English Dictionary

designate

/ˈdɛz.ɪɡ.nət/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈdez.ɪɡ.nət/

designate adjective: designated; appointed; chosen.

Adjective

designate (not comparable)

  1. Designated; appointed; chosen.
  2. (UK) Used after a role title to indicate that the person has been selected but has yet to take up the role.
    • King designate1619, George Buck, The History of King Richard the Third

Verb

UK/ˈdɛz.ɪɡ.neɪt/Australia/ˈdez.ɪɡ.næɪt/

designate (third-person singular simple present designates, present participle designating, simple past and past participle designated)

  1. To mark out and make known; to point out; to indicate; to show; to distinguish by marks or description
    • to designate the boundaries of a country
    • to designate the rioters who are to be arrested
  2. To call by a distinctive title; to name.
    • "Yes, let 'Sister' Davis have a whack at it too," urged George Bland. Tom Davis, who was Joe Matson's particular chum, was designated "Sister" because, in an incautious moment, when first coming to Excelsior Hall, he had shown a picture of his very pretty sister, Mabel.1912, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine, Stratemeyer Syndicate
    Synonyms:
    denominate
  3. To indicate or set apart for a purpose or duty — with to or for; to designate an officer for or to the command of a post or station.
    Synonyms:
    appoint, allocate

designate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

designate in Hindi

to indicate or set apart for a purpose or duty
नियुक्त करना niyukt karnā

designate in Tamil

அமர்வு செய், பணியமர்த்து

designate in Urdu

نامزد

designate in Bengali

নিযুক্ত করা, চিহ্নিত করা
More languagesFewer languages
designate in Malayalam
വ്യക്തമായി ചൂണ്ടിക്കാണിക്കുക, അടയാളം പറഞ്ഞുകാട്ടുക, നാമനിർദ്ദേശം ചെയ്യുക, നിയോഗിക്കുക
designate in Kannada
ಹೆಸರಿಡು, ಹೆಸರಿಸು, ಹೆಸರಿನಿಂದ ಕರೆ, ನಿಯಮಿಸು
designate in Gujarati
નિયુક્ત કરો

Examples of designate in a sentence

  • This is a designated place for mothers to breastfeed their babies.
  • The ambassador-at-large was designated to the Middle East as a region, rather than to a specific country.
  • International travelers must quarantine themselves at their own expense in a designated hotel for 14 days upon arrival.

All 40 example sentences with designate

Synonyms of designate

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of designate

Forms of designate

third-person singular presentdesignates
present participledesignating
past participledesignated
pastdesignated

Past tense of designate: designated

Origin of designate

Borrowed from Latin dēsignātus, perfect passive participle of designō, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of design.

Words formed from designate

Questions about designate

What does designate mean?
Designate means designated; appointed; chosen.
What is designate in Hindi?
Designate in Hindi is नियुक्त करना (niyukt karnā). See Designate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is designate?
Designate can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce designate?
Designate is pronounced /ˈdɛz.ɪɡ.nət/ (UK).

Words near designate in the dictionary

  1. designable
  2. designado
  3. designados
  4. designata
  5. designatable
  6. designate
  7. designated
  8. designated driver
  9. designated drivers
  10. designated hitter
  11. designated hitters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: designate (page history and authors); designate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); designate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Designate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); designate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); designate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); designate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-designate1.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-designate.wav.

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