modulate
/ˈmɒd͡ʒɪleɪt/US/ˈmɑ.d͡ʒəˌleɪt/
modulate verb: to change the pitch, intensity or tone of one's voice or of a musical instrument.
Verb
modulate (third-person singular simple present modulates, present participle modulating, simple past and past participle modulated)
- To change the pitch, intensity or tone of one's voice or of a musical instrument.
- "Can you tell?" she asked, in a trembling but well modulated and sensual voice.1980 April 19, Andrea Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 10
- To vary the amplitude, frequency or phase of a carrier wave in proportion to the amplitude etc of a source wave (such as speech or music).
- To move from one key or tonality to another, especially by using a chord progression.
modulate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
modulate in Tamil
- இசை ஏற்றி இறக்கிச் சரிப்படுத்து, ஒழுங்குப்படுத்து
modulate in Urdu
- ہم آہنگ کرنا, موافق بنانا, نرم کرنا
modulate in Bengali
- নিয়ন্ত্রণ করা, স্বর পরিবর্তন করা, সমন্বয় করা
modulate in Malayalam
- adjust, regulate, set
- ചിട്ടപ്പെടുത്തുക, നിയന്ത്രിക്കുക, ക്രമവൽക്കരിക്കുക, ക്രമപ്പെടുത്തുക, വ്യവസ്ഥപ്പെടുത്തുക, ക്രമീകരിക്കുക
- adjust, change the tone of
- ക്രമീകരിക്കുക, ശരിപ്പെടുത്തുക, ശബ്ദം ക്രമീകരിക്കുക, സ്വരലയം വരുത്തുക, ശബ്ദം ശരിയാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- modulate in Kannada
- ಸರಿಹೊಂದಿಸು, ಹದವರಿತು ಜೋಡಿಸು, ಅಳವಡಿಸು, ಸಮನ್ವಯಗೊಳಿಸು
Examples of modulate in a sentence
- Here the passage modulates into A-sharp and becomes very difficult to read.
- The composition modulates upwards through the cycle of fifths, eventually returning to the original key.
- In a radio transmitter you modulate the carrier wave; in the receiver you demodulate it.
Forms of modulate
| third-person singular present | modulates |
|---|---|
| present participle | modulating |
| past participle | modulated |
| past | modulated |
Origin of modulate
From Latin modulor (“to measure, regulate, modulate”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from modulus (“measure”). Compare module, modulus. By surface analysis, modul(e) + -ate.
Words formed from modulate
- amplitude modulation
- AM
- angiomodulating
- chronomodulated
- comodulate
- downmodulate
- down-modulate
- frequency modulation
- FM
- immunomodulate
- immunomodulating
- intermodulate
- modulatable
- modulation
- modulative
- modulatory
- neuromodulate
- nonmodulated
- nonmodulating
- overmodulate
- phase modulation
- premodulate
- radiomodulated
- radiomodulating
- remodulate
- unmodulated
- upmodulate
Questions about modulate
- What does modulate mean?
- Modulate means to change the pitch, intensity or tone of one's voice or of a musical instrument.
- What is modulate in Tamil?
- Modulate in Tamil is இசை ஏற்றி இறக்கிச் சரிப்படுத்து, ஒழுங்குப்படுத்து. See Modulate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is modulate?
- Modulate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce modulate?
- Modulate is pronounced /ˈmɒd͡ʒɪleɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of modulate?
- The past tense of modulate is modulated.
Words near modulate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: modulate (page history and authors); modulate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); modulate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); modulate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); modulate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); modulate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-modulate.wav.
Cite this entry: “modulate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/modulate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.