Word.ws English Dictionary

sublimated

sublimated is the simple past and past participle of sublimate.

Adjective

sublimated (comparative more sublimated, superlative most sublimated)

  1. Of a substance, changed from a solid into a gas without passing through the liquid state, with or without being heated.
  2. Modified from the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct into a socially acceptable manner.

Meaning of sublimate

Verb

sublimate (third-person singular simple present sublimates, present participle sublimating, simple past and past participle sublimated)

  1. (transitive, generally) To change (a solid substance) into a gas without breaking down or passing through the liquid state by heating it gently.
    Synonyms:
    sublime
  2. (transitive, chiefly passive voice) To change (a substance) from a gas into a solid through sublimation.
    Synonyms:
    sublime
  3. (broadly, figuratively, transitive) To refine (something) until it disappears or loses all meaning.
  4. (broadly, figuratively, transitive) To modify (the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct) in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of (such an instinct) into some acceptable activity.
    • Foreigners extol the American "energy" […] Basically it is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism and...1969, Susan Sontag, “What’s Happening in America”, in Styles of Radical Will, Kindle edition, Penguin Modern Classics, published 2009, →ISBN, page 194
  5. (archaic, broadly, figuratively, transitive) To obtain (something) through, or as if through, sublimation.
  6. (archaic, broadly, figuratively, transitive) To purify or refine (a substance).
    • The precepts of Christianity are […] so apt […] to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt.1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC

See all 13 meanings of sublimate

Forms of sublimated

comparativemore sublimated
superlativemost sublimated

Questions about sublimated

What does sublimated mean?
Sublimated means of a substance, changed from a solid into a gas without passing through the liquid state, with or without being heated.
What is sublimated the simple past and past participle of?
Sublimated is the simple past and past participle of sublimate.
What part of speech is sublimated?
Sublimated is an adjective.

Words near sublimated in the dictionary

  1. sublimability
  2. sublimable
  3. sublimableness
  4. sublimatable
  5. sublimate
  6. sublimated
  7. sublimates
  8. sublimating
  9. sublimation
  10. sublimation energies
  11. sublimation energy

Source and license

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