Word.ws English Dictionary

foveate

/ˈfəʊvi.ət/

foveate adjective: having slight depressions or pits.

Adjective

foveate (comparative more foveate, superlative most foveate)

  1. Having slight depressions or pits.
    Synonyms:
    pitted

Verb

IPA/ˈfəʊvi.eɪt/

foveate (third-person singular simple present foveates, present participle foveating, simple past and past participle foveated)

  1. (transitive) To angle one's eyes such that the foveae are directed at (an object in one's field of view), the fovea being the portion of the retina responsible for sharp central vision.
    • “Tracking an object requires the person to first move their head and eyes to the target, which always results in a slight overshoot, then quickly flick the eyes back to foveate on the target [get the target centred on the optic nerve]^([sic]),” says Dr Leonard.2020 December 22, Ben Welch, quoting Chuck Leonard, “What is football intelligence and can players develop it?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Synonyms of foveate

Forms of foveate

Adjective
comparativemore foveate
superlativemost foveate
Verb
third-person singular presentfoveates
present participlefoveating
past participlefoveated
pastfoveated

Origin of foveate

From fovea + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

From fovea + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Words formed from foveate

Questions about foveate

What does foveate mean?
Foveate means having slight depressions or pits.
What part of speech is foveate?
Foveate can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce foveate?
Foveate is pronounced /ˈfəʊvi.ət/.

Words near foveate in the dictionary

  1. foveal zones
  2. fovealization
  3. fovealize
  4. foveally
  5. foveas
  6. foveate
  7. foveated
  8. foveates
  9. foveating
  10. foveation
  11. foveations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foveate (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.

Last updated:

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

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