contribute

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Latin contribūtus, perfect passive participle of contribuō (“I bring together; I unite”), from con- (“together”) +‎ tribuō (“I bestow”), from tribus (“tribe”), derived from trēs (“three”), from Proto-Italic *trēs, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹɪb.juːt/, /ˈkɒn.t(ʃ)ɹɪˌbjuːt/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹɪb.jut/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (when conjugated as contributing or contributed) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹɪb.(j)ət/
  • (General American, General Australian) IPA^(key): [kənˈtɹɪb.(j)əɾ]
• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /ˈkon.tɹɪb.jut/
• Hyphenation: con‧trib‧ute

Verb

contribute (third-person singular simple present contributes, present participle contributing, simple past and past participle contributed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To give something that is or becomes part of a larger whole.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:contribute

   to contribute money to a church fund

   to contribute articles to a journal

   • 1849, William Scott, Francis Garden, James Bowling Mozley, The Christian Remembrancer, volume 17, page 217:

     That principle carried out consistently and logically, makes the individual not a claimant upon society, but a benefiter of it. He contributes whatever talent, natural or acquired, he may have, cheerfully to the promotion of the common good, […]

   • 2007 April 29, Pat Borzi, “Normalcy Returns: Rivera Gets First Save”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Rivera retired the next three batters in order, with third baseman Alex Rodriguez contributing a nifty barehand pickup and throw on Julio Lugo’s roller.

   • 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:

     Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.

   • 2013, Eric Benjamin Seufert, Freemium Economics: Leveraging Analytics and User Segmentation to Drive Revenue, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 94:

     Lifetime ARPU, or the average revenue contributed per user over the lifetime of a product, can provide some insight into the habits of a large group of users within the product.

Derived terms

• noncontributing
• overcontribute
• recontribute
• uncontributed
• uncontributing

 

Related terms

• contributable
• contribution
• contributive
• contributor
• contributory

Translations

to give something, that is or becomes part of a larger whole

• Afrikaans: bydra (af)
• Arabic: سَاهَمَ (sāhama)
• Armenian: նպաստել (hy) (npastel)
• Bulgarian: доприна́сям (bg) (doprinásjam)
• Catalan: contribuir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 貢獻 / 贡献 (zh) (gòngxiàn)

• Czech: přispět (cs)
• Danish: bidrage
• Dutch: bijdragen (nl)
• Esperanto: kontribui (eo)
• Finnish: myötävaikuttaa, olla osallisena, lahjoittaa (fi), antaa osansa, tehdä osansa, osallistua (fi), kantaa kortensa kekoon (fi)
• French: contribuer (fr)
• German: beisteuern (de), beitragen (de)
• Greek: συνεισφέρω (el) (syneisféro)

  Ancient Greek: εἰσφέρω (eisphérō)

• Haitian Creole: kontribye
• Hebrew: תרם (he) (tarám)
• Hungarian: hozzájárul (hu), közreműködik (hu)
• Italian: contribuire (it)
• Japanese: 貢献する (ja) (こうけんする, kōken suru)
• Kazakh: үлес қосу (üles qosu)
• Khiamniungan Naga: thōh-îe
• Latin: cōnferō (la), contribuō
• Luxembourgish: bäidroen (lb), bäisteieren, contribuéieren
• Norwegian: bidra (no)
• Polish: dołożyć się pf, dokładać się impf, wnosić wkład impf, wnieść wkład pf
• Portuguese: contribuir (pt)
• Russian: де́лать поже́ртвования impf (délatʹ požértvovanija), де́лать взно́сы impf (délatʹ vznósy), вноси́ть вклад impf (vnosítʹ vklad)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: доприносити impf, допринети pf

  Roman: doprinositi (sh) impf, doprinijeti (sh) pf

• Slovene: prispevati
• Spanish: contribuir (es)
• Swedish: bidra (sv), bidraga (sv)
• Ukrainian: вклада́тися (vkladátysja), робити внесок impf (robyty vnesok), зробити внесок pf (zrobyty vnesok)
• Vietnamese: contribute (vi)
• Welsh: cyfrannu (cy)

Latin

Participle

contribūte

1. vocative masculine singular of contribūtus