How to use activate in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb
Activate means to encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate. Example: “The pranksters activated the fire alarm by spraying deodorant next to it.”
Examples of activate by meaning
verbTo encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate.
- activate the economy
verbTo put a device, mechanism (alarm etc.) or system into action or motion; to trigger, to actuate, to set off, to enable.
- The pranksters activated the fire alarm by spraying deodorant next to it.
verbTo organize or create a military unit or station.
- A new squadron was activated.
verbTo enter an active state.
- The burglar alarm activates automatically.
More sentences with activate
- The machinery, when activated, would create atemporal bubbles wherein nothing was affected by the flow of time.From the entry atemporal
- His trip of the switch activated the mechanism.From the entry trip
- Filamentous bacteria may cause the bulking of activated sludge.From the entry bulking
- Holding down a key on the keyboard activates autorepeat, as though the key were being pressed many times in a row.From the entry autorepeat
- Roadside virtual fencing systems activate lights and sounds to deter wildlife from entering the road as vehicles approach.From the entry virtual fencing
- Various sections of the brain are activated during the Big O, including the limbic system.2024 August 26, Kimberly Delarosa, “Can Orgasms Make You Smarter? Here’s What Experts Say”, in Glamour, archived from the original on 18…. From the entry big O
- When activated, the pressure switches to output 3 while output 4 exhausts through the exhaust port.2022 July 13, Alan Darbyshire, Charles Gibson, Mechanical Engineering, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 16. From the entry exhaust
- The lenses remain “dark” until a pedestrian pushes the call button to activate the beacon.2021 February 26, Hannah Eason, “Richmond to install new traffic signals for pedestrians, bicyclists at crosswalks”, in NBC 12, Richmond…. From the entry call button
- As this went on, some of the pumps were activated, and the dewatering of the ship began.2020 November 18, Drachinifel, 5:52 from the start, in The Salvage of Pearl Harbor Pt 2 - Up She Rises!, archived from the original on 22…. From the entry dewatering
- They’re the ones that activate when we’re expecting or receiving a reward.”2020, Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom, Viking (2021), page 154. From the entry mesolimbic
- Among these molecules, TNF activates fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs), which leads to the production of inflammatory mediators.2019 July 8, Michael Bonelli, Karolina Dalwigk, Alexander Platzer, Isabel Olmos Calvo, Silvia Hayer, Birgit Niederreiter, et al., “IRF1 is…. From the entry FLS
- With a flick of a needle-like finger he activated the autocook and selected "random" from the menu.2018, Neil Davies, A World Of Assassins, page 119. From the entry autocook
- What areas of the brains of superagers are activated more than those of ordinary seniors?2017, Ilchi Lee, I've Decided to Live 120 Years, page 206. From the entry superager
- Activated Nek11 is capable of phosphorylating Cdc25A on sites within a phosphodegron that promotes recruitment of β-TrCP.2015 October 27, “Loss of Nek11 Prevents G2/M Arrest and Promotes Cell Death in HCT116 Colorectal Cancer Cells Exposed to Therapeutic DNA…. From the entry phosphodegron
- Therefore, fluctuatively prepared tunneling can cause activated transitions between QEPs up to the room temperature.2014, Robert Austin, Ephraim Buhks, Britton Chance, Protein Structure: Molecular and Electronic Reactivity, page 130. From the entry fluctuatively
- Hotwords can be activated fast, typically by a single mouse click.2013, Wolfgang Schuler, Jörg Hannemann, Norbert Streitz, Designing User Interfaces for Hypermedia, page 211. From the entry hotword
- Lightly toast the pistachios in a pan (if you use activated pistachios, skip this step).2013, Sarah Wilson, I Quit Sugar Christmas Cookbook, →ISBN, page 24. From the entry cling wrap
- After an MCI, hospital surge-capacity plans will have to be activated quickly.2011, Kate Curtis, Emergency and Trauma Care for Nurses and Paramedics. From the entry MCI
- Typically, proto-oncogenes are normal cellular genes that, when activated by mutation or overexpression, promote cancer.2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies, Fourth Estate (2011), page 534. From the entry proto-oncogene
- The materials released did not ignite before the deluge system was manually activated, controlling the incident.2009 January 13, National Transportation Safety Board, “Earlier Western Accidents”, in Special Investigation Report: Mobile Acetylene…. From the entry deluge
- Loss of matrix attachment of cultured epithelial cells activates a caspase-mediated apoptotic program known as anoikis.2009 August 19, Zachary T. Schafer et al., “Antioxidant and oncogene rescue of metabolic defects caused by loss of matrix attachment”, in…. From the entry anoikis
- Specific gestures or muscle movements fire the proper sequence of nerves to activate a certain skill.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Biotics: Training Codex entry. From the entry biofeedback
- When a turian patrol discovered a human fleet attempting to activate a relay, they attacked.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: First Contact War Codex entry. From the entry first contact
- It is activated by 2'-5' oligoadenylates with at least three adenyl residues and one 5' phosphoryl group.2005, Peter Palese, editor, Modulation of Host Gene Expression and Innate Immunity by Viruses, Springer, page 45. From the entry adenyl
- He scrambled to grab the weapon but he ineptly misgripped and accidentally activated the trigger.2003, Jarod Espy, Wonder Journeys Part I: Rise of a New Age, page 69. From the entry misgrip
- The intake of food triggers a release of histamine, which activates the acid-secreting cells.2001, Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 46. From the entry histamine
- In addition, WinAmp is highly keyboardable, and most features can be activated via hotkeys.2000, Scot Hacker, MP3: The Definitive Guide, page 63. From the entry keyboardable
- About one second after the first officer acknowledged the go-around, the stick shaker (stall warning) activated.1999 April 15, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, “1.1 History of the Flight”, in Aviation Investigation Report A97H0011, Loss of…. From the entry stall
- Modal screen elements are subtrees which, when activated, disable all elements external to them.1996, OOPSLA '96: Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications, volume 31, numbers 10-12. From the entry modal
- Intalk is generally activated from within, yet it is a result of outside influences.1992, Jacques Weisel, Options from Within. From the entry intalk
- Darnell leaned back in his upholstered stimuchair and activated the interoffice transmitter.1992, Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Ball, PartnerShip, Riverdale, NY: Baen Books, →ISBN, page 106. From the entry m'lovely
- The handful of never-ending summer classics annually activated by rock-radio programmers.1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 151. From the entry programmer
- Components of actions can also get misblended, usually when two or more activated schemas are triggered simultaneously.1986, Daniel Goleman, David Heller, The Pleasures of psychology, page 96. From the entry misblend
- In fact, the roll probably confused them, especially since the stickshaker had not activated.1979 December 21, National Transportation Safety Board, “Aircraft and Flightcrew Performance”, in Aircraft Accident Report: American…. From the entry buffet
- The forming of shifts and undershifts is activated by frequent quakes.1964, Bhabesh Chandra Roy, Report of the twenty-second session, India, 1964. From the entry undershift
- Well, I thought the trekky look of a communicator that you whack to activate was kind of a cool idea.2022, Curtis Wilbur, Tides of Air: An Inferno-Earth Series Novel, →ISBN. From the entry trekky
Meaning of activate
- verb To encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate.
- verb To put a device, mechanism (alarm etc.) or system into action or motion; to trigger, to actuate, to set off, to enable.
- verb To render more reactive; excite.
Questions about activate in a sentence
- How do you use activate in a sentence?
- Activate is used as a verb. For example: “The pranksters activated the fire alarm by spraying deodorant next to it.”
- What is a short sentence with activate?
- “activate the economy”
- What does activate mean?
- Activate means to encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: activate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use activate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/activate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
