innovate

English

Etymology

From the participle stem of Latin innovare (“renew”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnəveɪt/

• Audio (US):

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Verb

innovate (third-person singular simple present innovates, present participle innovating, simple past and past participle innovated)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To alter, to change into something new; to revolutionize.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , New York 2001, p.80:

     But the most frequent maladies are such as proceed from themselves, as first when religion and God's service is neglected, innovated or altered […].

   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     From his attempts upon the civil power, he proceeds to innovate God's worship.

2. (intransitive) To introduce something new to a particular environment; to do something new.
   • 2013 February 6, Hideo Otake, “Revising the Interpretation of the Japanese Economy”, in Michio Muramatsu, Frieder Naschold, editors, State and Administration in Japan and Germany: A Comparative Perspective on Continuity and Change‎, page 319:

     Japanese retail stores have strove to, and have succeeded in, fulfilling these severe demands, and in doing so, have constantly had to innovate both technologically and institutionally in order to keep up with the competition.

3. (transitive) To introduce (something) as new.

   to innovate a word or an act

   • 2025 February 4, Nicole Wolkov, Christina Harward, Olivia Gibson, Grace Mappes, Kateryna Stepanenko, George Barros, Frederick W. Kagan, Nate Trotter, “Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 4, 2025”, in Ukraine Project, Institute for the Study of War:

     The Russian defense industrial base (DIB) continues to innovate military equipment and weapons for Russian forces to use in Ukraine.

Synonyms

• invent

Derived terms

• innovent
• uninnovated

Related terms

• innovative
• innovation
• innovator
• innovatory

Translations

to introduce something new

Bulgarian: нововъве́ждам (bg) impf (novovǎvéždam) Catalan: innovar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 創新 / 创新 (zh) (chuàngxīn) Czech: inovovat (cs) Danish: forny Dutch: vernieuwen (nl) Finnish: innovoida, tehdä uutta, tehdä uudella tavalla, keksiä (fi) French: innover (fr) German: innovieren (de), erneuern (de), neuern (de) Greek: Ancient: καινουργέω (kainourgéō) Hungarian: újít (hu) Icelandic: endurnýja, innleiða nýjungar Italian: innovare (it) Norwegian: fornye Portuguese: inovar (pt) Slovak: inovovať Spanish: innovar (es) Swedish: förnya (sv)

Anagrams

• venation

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

innovate

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

Etymology 2

Participle

innovate f pl

1. feminine plural of innovato

Anagrams

• Aventino, innevato

Latin

Verb

innovāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of innovō

Spanish

Verb

innovate

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