palpate
/ˈpælpeɪt/
palpate verb: to examine or otherwise explore through touch, particularly (medicine) in reference to an area or organ of the human body.
Verb
palpate (third-person singular simple present palpates, present participle palpating, simple past and past participle palpated)
- To examine or otherwise explore through touch, particularly (medicine) in reference to an area or organ of the human body.
- I palpated his expired heart.
- David reached inside with his fingers and palpated a logic board.1992 March 2, Richard Preston, “The Mountains of Pi”, in The New Yorker
- Synonyms:
- touch
Adjective
palpate (not comparable)
Synonyms of palpate
Forms of palpate
| third-person singular present | palpates |
|---|---|
| present participle | palpating |
| past participle | palpated |
| past | palpated |
Origin of palpate
Borrowed from Latin palpātus, perfect passive participle of palpō (“touch softly”).
Words formed from palpate
Questions about palpate
- What does palpate mean?
- Palpate means to examine or otherwise explore through touch, particularly (medicine) in reference to an area or organ of the human body.
- What part of speech is palpate?
- Palpate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce palpate?
- Palpate is pronounced /ˈpælpeɪt/.
- What is the past tense of palpate?
- The past tense of palpate is palpated.
Words near palpate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: palpate (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-palpate.wav.
Cite this entry: “palpate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/palpate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.