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. (ambitransitive) 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:

     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), допринеса́ pf (doprinesá) 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), συμβάλλω (el) (symvállo) 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 Maori: uta 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: đóng góp (vi) Welsh: cyfrannu (cy)

Latin

Participle

contribūte

1. vocative masculine singular of contribūtus