Word.ws English Dictionary

potentiate

potentiate verb: to endow with power.

Verb

potentiate (third-person singular simple present potentiates, present participle potentiating, simple past and past participle potentiated)

  1. (transitive) To endow with power.
  2. (transitive) To enhance.
  3. (transitive) To increase the potency (of a drug or biochemical agent).
    • These antidepressants potentiate the analgesic action of opiates.

Forms of potentiate

third-person singular presentpotentiates
present participlepotentiating
past participlepotentiated
pastpotentiated

Origin of potentiate

From potent + -i- + -ate (verb-forming suffix), modelled after German potenzieren.

Words formed from potentiate

Questions about potentiate

What does potentiate mean?
Potentiate means to endow with power.
What part of speech is potentiate?
Potentiate is a verb.
What is the past tense of potentiate?
The past tense of potentiate is potentiated.

Words near potentiate in the dictionary

  1. potentially hazardous objects
  2. potentialness
  3. potentials
  4. potentiaries
  5. potentiary
  6. potentiate
  7. potentiated
  8. potentiates
  9. potentiating
  10. potentiation
  11. potentiations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: potentiate (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:

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