- to give life to or cause to come alive
- to make lively; enliven
- to encourage or inspire
- to impart motion to; move to action or work
- to record on film or video tape so as to give movement to
- being alive or having life
- gay, spirited, or lively
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
an•i•mate /v. ˈænəˌmeɪt; adj. -mɪt/USA pronunciation
v., -mat•ed, -mat•ing, adj.
v. [~ + object]
adj.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026v. [~ + object]
- to give life to;
make alive:Her presence animated the party. - to move or stir to action;
motivate;
inspire;
encourage:The move to a new office animated the staff. - to give motion to: We saw leaves animated by the breeze.
- Show Businessto produce in the form of an animated cartoon.
adj.
- alive;
possessing life:animate beings. - Linguistics(of a noun) having, or seeming to have, the ability to move, think, and act under one's own power(opposed to inanimate ): In the sentence "John blew the candle out'', John is an animate noun.
an•i•mate
(v. an′ə māt′;adj. an′ə mit),USA pronunciation v., -mat•ed, -mat•ing, adj.
v.t.
adj.
an′i•mate•ly, adv.
an′i•mate•ness, n.
an′i•mat′ing•ly, adv.
v.t.
- to give life to;
make alive:God animated the dust. - to make lively, vivacious, or vigorous;
give zest or spirit to:Her presence animated the party. - to fill with courage or boldness;
encourage:to animate weary troops. - to move or stir to action;
motivate:He was animated by religious zeal. - to give motion to:leaves animated by a breeze.
- Show Businessto prepare or produce as an animated cartoon:to animate a children's story.
adj.
- alive;
possessing life:animate creatures. - lively:an animate expression of joy.
- of or relating to animal life.
- able to move voluntarily.
- Linguisticsbelonging to a syntactic category or having a semantic feature that is characteristic of words denoting beings regarded as having perception and volition (opposed to inanimate).
- Latin animātus filled with breath or air, quickened, animated (past participle of animāre). See anima, -ate1
- late Middle English animat 1375–1425
an′i•mate•ness, n.
an′i•mat′ing•ly, adv.
- 1. vivify, quicken, vitalize. 2. energize, fortify. Animate, invigorate, stimulate mean to enliven. To animate is to create a liveliness:Health and energy animated his movements.To invigorate means to give physical vigor, to refresh, to exhilarate:Mountain air invigorates.To stimulate is to arouse a latent liveliness on a particular occasion:Alcohol stimulates. 3. inspire, inspirit, hearten, arouse, exhilarate. 4. excite, incite, fire, urge, kindle, prompt.
- 1. kill. 7. dead.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
animate vb /ˈænɪˌmeɪt/ (transitive)
'animate' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
continuous creation
- creature
- feminine
- flesh
- gender
- inanimate
- inform
- inspire
- invigorate
- life
- masculine
- spark
- tit
- vivify
- actualism
- agent
- animal
- animated
- animatic
- animation
- animatism
- animato
- animator
- animatronics
- arouse
- cheer
- conatus
- enliven
- excite
- exhilarate
- flush
- galvanize
- heat
- innerve
- kindle
- mother earth
- or
- pep
- population
- quicken
- raise
- reanimate
- rouse
- that
- totem
- vitalize
- wake
- warm
- selection
- spark plug