Word.ws English Dictionary

fractionate

/ˈfɹæk.ʃəneɪt/

fractionate verb: to separate (a mixture) into its individual constituents by exploiting differences in some chemical or physical property, such as boiling point, particle size, solubility etc.

fractionate: Five test tubes with colorful liquids in a wooden rack
Photo by Merrilee Schultz on Unsplash

Verb

fractionate (third-person singular simple present fractionates, present participle fractionating, simple past and past participle fractionated)

  1. To separate (a mixture) into its individual constituents by exploiting differences in some chemical or physical property, such as boiling point, particle size, solubility etc.
    • Crude oil is fractionated in a refinery to produce a number of different petroleum products.
  2. (radiotherapy) To divide a total dose of radiation into fractions.
  3. To divide each plaintext symbol into several ciphertext symbols as a preliminary stage of encryption.
  4. To use the technique of fractionation in hypnosis.

Forms of fractionate

third-person singular presentfractionates
present participlefractionating
past participlefractionated
pastfractionated

Origin of fractionate

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

Words formed from fractionate

Questions about fractionate

What does fractionate mean?
Fractionate means to separate (a mixture) into its individual constituents by exploiting differences in some chemical or physical property, such as boiling point, particle size, solubility etc.
What part of speech is fractionate?
Fractionate is a verb.
How do you pronounce fractionate?
Fractionate is pronounced /ˈfɹæk.ʃəneɪt/.
What is the past tense of fractionate?
The past tense of fractionate is fractionated.

Words near fractionate in the dictionary

  1. fractionalizes
  2. fractionalizing
  3. fractionally
  4. fractionals
  5. fractionary
  6. fractionate
  7. fractionated
  8. fractionatedly
  9. fractionates
  10. fractionating
  11. fractionating column

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fractionate (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: En-us-fractionate.oga.

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