communicate

Borrowed from Latin commūnicātus, perfect passive participle of commūnicō (“share, impart; make common”), from commūnis (“common”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈmjunəkeɪt/

• Audio (US)

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communicate (third-person singular simple present communicates, present participle communicating, simple past and past participle communicated)

1. To impart
   1. (transitive) To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. [from 16th c.]

      It is vital that I communicate this information to you.

   2. (transitive) To impart or transmit (an intangible quantity, substance); to give a share of. [from 16th c.]

      to communicate motion by means of a crank

      • Jeremy Taylor

        Where God is worshipped, there he communicates his blessings and holy influences.

   3. (transitive) To pass on (a disease) to another person, animal etc. [from 17th c.]

      The disease was mainly communicated via rats and other vermin.

2. To share
   1. (transitive, obsolete) To share (in); to have in common, to partake of. [16th-19th c.]

      We shall now consider those functions of intelligence which man communicates with the higher beasts.

      • Ben Jonson

        thousands that communicate our loss

   2. (intransitive, Christianity) To receive the bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist; to take part in Holy Communion. [from 16th c.]
      • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 148:

        The ‘better sort’ might communicate on a separate day; and in some parishes even the quality of the communion wine varied with the social quality of the recipients.

   3. (transitive, Christianity) To administer the Holy Communion to (someone). [from 16th c.]
      • Jeremy Taylor

        She [the church] […] may communicate him.

   4. (intransitive) To express or convey ideas, either through verbal or nonverbal means; to have intercourse, to exchange information. [from 16th c.]

      Many deaf people communicate with sign language.

      I feel I hardly know him; I just wish he'd communicate with me a little more.

   5. (intransitive) To be connected with (another room, vessel etc.) by means of an opening or channel. [from 16th c.]

      The living room communicates with the back garden by these French windows.

• See also Thesaurus:communicate

• communication
• communicator
• excommunicate
• communion

commūnicāte

1. first-person plural present active imperative of commūnicō