Word.ws English Dictionary

ingenerate

/ɪnˈdʒɛnəɹət/

ingenerate adjective: innate, inborn.

Adjective (1)

ingenerate (comparative more ingenerate, superlative most ingenerate)

  1. (archaic) Innate, inborn.
    • Pure and unspotted from all loathly crime
      That is ingenerate in fleshly slime.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • Those virtues were […]rather feigned and affected things to serve his ambition, than true qualities ingenerate in his judgement or nature.1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...

Verb

IPA/ɪnˈdʒɛnəɹeɪt/

ingenerate (third-person singular simple present ingenerates, present participle ingenerating, simple past and past participle ingenerated)

  1. (transitive) To generate or produce within; to beget or engender; to cause.
    • a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon
      ingenerate or encrease this disposition of lowlinee and abjection
    • those noble habits that upon that account are ingenerated in the Soul, as Religion, Gratitude, Obedience, and Tranquillity of Minda. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […]...

Adjective (2)

ingenerate (not comparable)

  1. (rare) Not generated, self-existent.
    • But neither is one time generated in another; for if the preſent be generated in the future, the future muſt be present; and if in the paſt, the paſt. The ſame may be ſaid of other times; therefore one time is not generated in another. Now if time be neither generated in itſelf, nor one time in...1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[A Summary of Scepticism.] Chap[ter] XVII. Of Time.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas...
    • The first Synod of Sirmium anathematises those who […] identify the Holy Ghost with the Ingenerate God.1894, Henry Barclay Swete, “III. 35”, in Apostles's Creed
    Antonyms:
    generate

Antonyms of ingenerate

Forms of ingenerate

Adjective
comparativemore ingenerate
superlativemost ingenerate
Verb
third-person singular presentingenerates
present participleingenerating
past participleingenerated
pastingenerated

Origin of ingenerate

First attested in 1528; borrowed from Latin ingenerātus, perfect passive participle of ingenerō, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix).

First attested in 1656; borrowed from Late Latin ingenerātus, from in- (“not”) + generātus.

Questions about ingenerate

What does ingenerate mean?
Ingenerate means innate, inborn.
What part of speech is ingenerate?
Ingenerate can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce ingenerate?
Ingenerate is pronounced /ɪnˈdʒɛnəɹət/.

Words near ingenerate in the dictionary

  1. ingendring
  2. ingener
  3. ingenerability
  4. ingenerable
  5. ingenerably
  6. ingenerate
  7. ingenerated
  8. ingenerates
  9. ingenerating
  10. ingeneration
  11. ingeners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ingenerate (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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