conjugate
2 synonyms for conjugate, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Verb — To give the different forms of a verb according to person, number, tense, mood and voice.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
conjugated
coupled
How to use conjugate
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
conjugate a verb
conjugated in the present tense
complex conjugate
conjugate acid
The grammar sense is everyday in language teaching; the mathematical and chemical senses are technical.
Etymology
From Latin conjugatus, past participle of conjugare "to yoke together", from com- "together" and jugum "yoke".
Full origin of conjugate →Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to conjugate a verb?
It means listing or producing the verb's forms as they change with the subject and the tense: I go, he goes, they went. In heavily inflected languages such as Spanish, Italian or Latin, each tense has a distinct ending for every person, so conjugation is a long list; English verbs change far less.
What is the difference between conjugation and declension?
Conjugation is the set of forms a verb takes. Declension is the set of forms a noun, pronoun or adjective takes for case, number and gender. Verbs conjugate, nouns decline.
What is a conjugate in maths?
Most often the complex conjugate, formed by changing the sign of the imaginary part: the conjugate of a + bi is a − bi. The same idea applies to surds, where the conjugate of 2 + √5 is 2 − √5, a trick used to clear roots from a denominator.
