Word.ws English Dictionary

reciprocates

reciprocates is the third-person singular simple present indicative of reciprocate.

Meaning of reciprocate

Verb

reciprocate (third-person singular simple present reciprocates, present participle reciprocating, simple past and past participle reciprocated)

  1. (transitive) To exchange two things, with both parties giving one thing and taking another thing.
    • The USTR isn't reciprocating actual tariffs. It's just placing the biggest tariffs on the countries running the biggest trade surpluses.2025 April 3, Felix Salmon, “How to read the White House's tariff formula”, in Axios
  2. To give something else in response (where the "thing" may also be abstract, a feeling or action) To make a reciprocal gift.
    • I gave them apples from my tree; they reciprocated with a pie and some apple jelly.
  3. (intransitive) To move backwards and forwards, like a piston.
    • a reciprocating engine
  4. (intransitive) To counter, retort or retaliate.

Questions about reciprocates

What is reciprocates the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Reciprocates is the third-person singular simple present indicative of reciprocate.

Words near reciprocates in the dictionary

  1. reciprocantive
  2. reciprocants
  3. reciprocatable
  4. reciprocate
  5. reciprocated
  6. reciprocates
  7. reciprocating
  8. reciprocating engine
  9. reciprocating engines
  10. reciprocating saw
  11. reciprocating saws

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reciprocates (page history and authors); reciprocate (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: “reciprocates.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reciprocates. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.