replicate

English

Etymology

From Latin replicātus, past participle of replicāre (“to fold or bend back; reply”), from re (“back”) + plicāre (“to fold”); see ply. Doublet of reply and replica.

Pronunciation

• (verb) (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛpləˌkeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (noun) (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛpləˌkət/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

replicate (third-person singular simple present replicates, present participle replicating, simple past and past participle replicated)

1. To make a copy (replica) of.

   On entering a host cell, a virus will start to replicate.

   • 2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 46:

     It is the Northern portals that are most interesting. The earlier structure was given the romantic, grotto-like feature of a tower with windows. When expanded (circa 1893), the engineers chose to replicate that design, seemingly extending the castle further.

2. (sciences) To repeat (an experiment or trial) with a consistent result.
   • 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:

     [Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.

   • 2021 June 16, Andrew Mourant, “Plans for new test centre remain on track”, in RAIL, number 933, page 42:

     The idea is that by building the centre with used and new normal railway components, GCRE will "replicate" the UK main line railway. Doherty sees this as a unique selling point: "We have some good rail research/testing universities such as Birmingham and Huddersfield, but you can't replicate a train rattling through at 120mph in a lab."

3. (obsolete) To reply.

Related terms

• replica
• replicability
• replicant
• replication
• replicative
• replicator
• reply

Translations

to make a copy of

• Bulgarian: копирам (bg) (kopiram), правя копие (pravja kopie)
• Finnish: kopioida (fi), monistaa (fi), replikoida (fi)
• French: répliquer (fr)
• Italian: replicare (it)
• Portuguese: replicar (pt)
• Romanian: replica (ro)
• Spanish: replicar (es)
• Turkish: replike etmek

Noun

replicate (plural replicates)

1. The outcome of a replication procedure; an exact copy or replica.
2. (music) A tone that is one or more octaves away from a given tone.

Adjective

replicate (comparative more replicate, superlative most replicate)

1. (botany, zoology) Folded over or backward; folded back upon itself.

   a replicate leaf or petal

   the replicate margin of a shell

Further reading

• “replicate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “replicate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “replicate”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Italian

Verb

replicate

1. inflection of replicare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Anagrams

• atreplice, pelatrice

Latin

Verb

replicāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of replicō

Spanish

Verb

replicate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of replicar combined with te