Word.ws English Dictionary

prostrate

Syllables: pros·trate/ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/US/ˈpɹɑstɹeɪt/

prostrate adjective: lying flat, face-down.

Adjective

prostrate (not comparable)

  1. Lying flat, face-down.
    • Prostrate fall / Before him reverent, and there confess / Humbly our faults.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.1945, Sir Winston Churchill, VE Day speech from House of Commons
    Synonyms:
    prone
    Antonyms:
    supine
  2. (figuratively) Emotionally devastated.
  3. Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.
    • He was prostrate from the extreme heat.
  4. Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
  5. (obsolete) Prostrated.

Verb

prostrate (third-person singular simple present prostrates, present participle prostrating, simple past and past participle prostrated)

  1. (often, reflexive) To lie flat or face-down.
  2. (also, figuratively) To throw oneself down in submission.
    • Those who had the privilege of approaching him, had to prostrate themselves before him in profound humility[…]1922, Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization, page 228
    • But I take the view that the statue is a cheap and cynical stunt by ministers with scant knowledge of history, whose only interest lies in greasing up to modern Indian politicians. With little or no dignity, they shamelessly prostrate themselves in the most craven way.2014 July 10, Stephen Glover, “Sorry, but Gandhi statue in Westminster is a cheap stunt by ministers with scant knowledge of history greasing up to India”, in Daily Mail
    Synonyms:
    grovel
  3. To cause to lie down, to flatten.
    • How many of these mighty pines were to be prostrated under that approaching tempest!1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 175
  4. (figuratively) To overcome or overpower.
    • Why this very minute she's prostrated with grief.1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC

prostrate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

prostrate in Hindi

to prostrate , to bow, to kneel
टेकना ṭeknā

prostrate in Tamil

கிடைமட்ட, நிலம்படிந்த

prostrate in Urdu

بہ سجدہ

prostrate in Bengali

ভূমিষ্ঠ, উপুড় হয়ে শুয়ে থাকা
More languagesFewer languages
prostrate in Malayalam
കമിഴ്ന്നു കാൽക്കൽ വീണ, നഷ്ടസാമർത്ഥ്യമുള്ള, സാഷ്ടാംഗം പതിച്ച
prostrate in Kannada
ಅಡ್ಡಬಿದ್ದ, ಸಾಷ್ಟಾಂಗವೆಸಗಿದ, ಪೊಡಮಟ್ಟ, ಸುಸ್ತಾದ
prostrate in Arabic
سَجَدَ sajada
prostrate in Malay
telangkup, bersujud
prostrate in Indonesian
bersujud
prostrate in Vietnamese
nằm úp, nằm sấp

Examples of prostrate in a sentence

  • Surah 18:50: 'And We told the Angels "prostrate yourselves before Adam".
  • So they all prostrated themselves, except Iblees who was one of the jinn.
  • Finding Adam playing with his favorite toy truck on the floor beside her prostrate father.

All 20 example sentences with prostrate

Synonyms of prostrate

Antonyms

Forms of prostrate

third-person singular presentprostrates
present participleprostrating
past participleprostrated
pastprostrated

Origin of prostrate

From Middle English prostrat(e) (“prostrate”, also used as the past participle of prostraten), borrowed from Latin prōstrātus, perfect passive participle of prōsternō (“to prostrate”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

From Middle English prostraten (“(reflexive) to prostrate; (with doun) to fall down in a state of humility or submission”), from prostrat(e) (“prostrate, prostrated”, also used as the past participle of prostraten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Latin prōstrātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

Words formed from prostrate

Questions about prostrate

What does prostrate mean?
Prostrate means lying flat, face-down.
What is prostrate in Hindi?
Prostrate in Hindi is टेकना (ṭeknā). See Prostrate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is prostrate?
Prostrate can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce prostrate?
Prostrate is pronounced /ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/ (UK).

Words near prostrate in the dictionary

  1. prostomid
  2. prostomids
  3. prostomium
  4. prostonium
  5. Prostore
  6. prostrate
  7. prostrate amaranth
  8. prostrate pigweed
  9. prostrated
  10. prostrately
  11. prostrater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prostrate (page history and authors); टेकना (Hindi) (page history and authors); prostrate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prostrate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prostrate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prostrate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prostrate (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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Cite this entry: “prostrate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prostrate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.