Word.ws English Dictionary

prevaricate

UK/pɹɪˈvaɹɪkeɪt//pɹɪˈvæɹɪkeɪt/

prevaricate verb: to deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).

Verb

prevaricate (third-person singular simple present prevaricates, present participle prevaricating, simple past and past participle prevaricated)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete, transitive) To deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).
  2. (intransitive) To speak or act in a manner that is intentionally ambiguous or evasive; equivocate.
    • The people saw the politician prevaricate every day.
    • At the moment of her departure he could prevaricate no longer, and, confessing to the gambling, told her the truth as far as he knew it—that the guineas had been won by Wildeve.1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, chapter 1, in The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    equivocate, waffle, evade
    Antonyms:
    direct
  3. (intransitive) To collude, as where an informer colludes with the defendant, and makes a sham prosecution.
  4. (UK) To undertake something falsely and deceitfully, with the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

prevaricate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

prevaricate in Hindi

to prevaricate, evade or avert
टालना ṭālnā
to prevaricate
टालमटोल करना ṭālamṭol karnā

prevaricate in Tamil

to prevaricate, shuffle, evade questions
குழப்பு kuḻappu

prevaricate in Urdu

to prevaricate, evade or avert
ٹالنا ṭālnā

prevaricate in Malayalam

beat about the bush, be evasive, hedge
ഉഭയാർത്ഥമായി സംസാരിക്കുക, തിരിച്ചും മറിച്ചും പറയുക, ഉരുളുക, രണ്ടർത്ഥത്തിൽ പറയുക, സന്ദിഗ്ദ്ധം വദിക്കുക, മാറ്റിമാറ്റിപറയുക
More languagesFewer languages
prevaricate in Kannada
ನನ್ನಿ ನುಡಿಯಲು ಹಿಂದೆಗೆ, ಸುಳ್ಳುಹೇಳು, ನುಣುಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ ಮಾತನಾಡು, ಸಂದಿಗ್ಧವಾಗಿ ಮಾತಾಡು

Synonyms of prevaricate

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of prevaricate

Forms of prevaricate

third-person singular presentprevaricates
present participleprevaricating
past participleprevaricated
pastprevaricated
alternative form (archaic)prævaricate

Origin of prevaricate

Borrowed from Latin praevāricātus, perfect active participle of praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; to play a false or double part”), from prae- + vāricō (“to stand with feet apart, straddle”), from vāricus (“with feet spread apart”); see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Words formed from prevaricate

Questions about prevaricate

What does prevaricate mean?
Prevaricate means to deviate, transgress; to go astray (from).
What is prevaricate in Hindi?
Prevaricate in Hindi is टालना (ṭālnā), टालमटोल करना (ṭālamṭol karnā). See Prevaricate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is prevaricate?
Prevaricate is a verb.
How do you pronounce prevaricate?
Prevaricate is pronounced /pɹɪˈvaɹɪkeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of prevaricate?
The past tense of prevaricate is prevaricated.

Words near prevaricate in the dictionary

  1. prevalidating
  2. prevalidation
  3. prevalidations
  4. prevalue
  5. prevalvular
  6. prevaricate
  7. prevaricated
  8. prevaricates
  9. prevaricatest
  10. prevaricateth
  11. prevaricating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prevaricate (page history and authors); टालना (Hindi) (page history and authors); குழப்பு (Tamil) (page history and authors); ٹالنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); prevaricate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); prevaricate (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-prevaricate.ogg.

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