Word.ws English Dictionary

triangulate

/tɹaɪˈæŋɡjəleɪt/

triangulate verb: to locate by means of triangulation.

Verb

triangulate (third-person singular simple present triangulates, present participle triangulating, simple past and past participle triangulated)

  1. To locate by means of triangulation.
    • "I'll give you a check now," I said abruptly, and saw Selina's green eyes triangulate angrily on my face.1966, Bob Shaw, Light of Other Days
  2. To pit two others against each other in order to achieve a desired outcome or to gain an advantage; to "play both sides against the middle".
    • Cruz, meanwhile, could wind up in the hot seat as he tries to triangulate between his disagreement with Trump’s position and his clear unwillingness to openly attack.2015 December 14, Alexis Levinson, “Four Storylines to Watch at the Las Vegas GOP Debate”, in National Review
    • By attempting to triangulate, Labour convinced leavers it was for remain and remainers that it was for leave. The party looked cynical and opportunistic, […]2019 December 16, Tom Kibasi, “How Labour went from near-breakthrough in 2017 to disaster in 2019”, in The Guardian
  3. To divide into triangles.

Adjective

triangulate (not comparable)

  1. Synonym of triangular.
    Synonyms:
    triangular

Synonyms of triangulate

Forms of triangulate

third-person singular presenttriangulates
present participletriangulating
past participletriangulated
pasttriangulated

Past tense of triangulate: triangulated

Origin of triangulate

From Latin triangulum + -ate or Medieval Latin *triangulāt-, the past participial stem of *triangulō. Compare French trianguler.

From Latin triangulātus. By surface analysis, tri- + angulate.

Words formed from triangulate

Questions about triangulate

What does triangulate mean?
Triangulate means to locate by means of triangulation.
What part of speech is triangulate?
Triangulate can be a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce triangulate?
Triangulate is pronounced /tɹaɪˈæŋɡjəleɪt/.
What is the past tense of triangulate?
The past tense of triangulate is triangulated.

Words near triangulate in the dictionary

  1. triangularize
  2. triangularized
  3. triangularizes
  4. triangularizing
  5. triangularly
  6. triangulate
  7. triangulated
  8. triangulately
  9. triangulateration
  10. triangulates
  11. triangulating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: triangulate (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-triangulate.wav.

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