| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| radiate |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ra·di·ate |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  r  d -t |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: ra·di·at·ed, ra·di·at·ing, ra·di·ates
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To send out rays or waves. 2. To issue or emerge in rays or waves: Heat radiated from the stove. 3. To extend in straight lines from or toward a center; diverge or converge like rays: Spokes radiate from a wheel hub. 4. Ecology To spread into new habitats and thereby diverge or diversify. Used of a group of organisms. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To emit (light, for example) in or as if in rays. 2. To send or spread out from or as if from a center: a cactus that radiates spines. 3. To irradiate or illuminate (an object). 4. To manifest in a glowing manner: a leader who radiates confidence. | | ADJECTIVE: | (- t)1. Botany Having rays or raylike parts, as in the flower heads of daisies. 2. Biology Characterized by radial symmetry. 3. Surrounded with rays: a radiate head on a coin. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin radire, radit-, to emit beams, from radius, ray. | | OTHER FORMS: | radi·ative —ADJECTIVE
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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