Word.ws English Dictionary

ovate

/ˈəʊ.veɪt/US/ˈoʊ.veɪt/

ovate adjective: shaped like an egg.

Adjective

ovate (comparative more ovate, superlative most ovate)

  1. Shaped like an egg.
    • The Geese, Anserinæ, have the body ovate, the head small, the bill stout and somewhat conical; the legs rather long; the wings of great length and breadth.1852, William Macgillivray, A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory, page 573
  2. With the broadest extremity near the base.

Noun (1)

ovate (plural ovates)

  1. An egg-shaped hand axe.
    • Slightly derived handaxes from the Mildenhall glaciofluvial sands, generally in fresh condition and dominated by ovates and cordates.2012, Paul Pettitt, Mark White, The British Palaeolithic, page 122

Noun (2)

ovate (plural ovates)

  1. An Irish bard.
  2. A member at a certain grade of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a neo-druidism order based in England.
  3. A modern-day bard of a gorsedd, especially one acknowledged at an eisteddfod.

Verb

ovate (third-person singular simple present ovates, present participle ovating, simple past and past participle ovated)

  1. (rare, transitive) To give someone an ovation.
  2. (intransitive, rare) To applaud enthusiastically.

ovate meaning in Tamil and Urdu

ovate in Tamil

முட்டை வடிவமான, முட்டை வடிவ, முட்டையுருவான, உருண்டையான

ovate in Urdu

انڈے جیسی شکل, بیضوی

Synonyms of ovate

Forms of ovate

Adjective
comparativemore ovate
superlativemost ovate
Noun
pluralovates
Verb
third-person singular presentovates
present participleovating
past participleovated
pastovated

Origin of ovate

Borrowed from Latin ōvātus, from ōvum (“an egg”) + -ātus; see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix).

Ultimately from a Celtic language, see Proto-Celtic *wātis.

Borrowed from Latin ovātus, perfect passive participle of ovō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Words formed from ovate

Questions about ovate

What does ovate mean?
Ovate means shaped like an egg.
What is ovate in Tamil?
Ovate in Tamil is முட்டை வடிவமான, முட்டை வடிவ, முட்டையுருவான. See Ovate meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is ovate?
Ovate can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ovate?
Ovate is pronounced /ˈəʊ.veɪt/ (UK).

Words near ovate in the dictionary

  1. ovary
  2. ovaryless
  3. OVAs
  4. ovastacin
  5. ovastacins
  6. ovate
  7. ovated
  8. ovately
  9. ovates
  10. ovation
  11. ovational

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ovate (page history and authors); ovate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ovate (Urdu 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-ovate.wav.

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