Meaning & use
capacitate
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Meanings
verbtransitiveformalrare
To give someone the ability, skill or legal power to do something.
Grammar: Takes an object, usually followed by to or for: the training capacitated nurses to lead teams.
Patterns
- capacitate someone to do something
- capacitate someone for something
The workshop capacitated local farmers to manage their own water supply.
The new law capacitates minors to sign certain contracts.
Funding from the charity capacitated the clinic to treat more patients.
verbtransitivebiologytechnical
In biology, to make sperm able to fertilize an egg; this change happens in the female reproductive tract.
Grammar: Takes an object; usually seen in the passive or as capacitated sperm.
Patterns
- be capacitated
Sperm are capacitated in the female tract before they can fertilize an egg.
The lab compared how quickly the cells were capacitated in each sample.
Word forms
| third person singular | capacitates |
|---|---|
| past tense | capacitated |
| past participle | capacitated |
| -ing form | capacitating |
Common combinations
- capacitate someone to
- The grant capacitates young people to start businesses.
- capacitate communities
- The program aims to capacitate rural communities.
- capacitate sperm
- Chemicals in the fluid capacitate sperm for fertilization.
- legally capacitated
- Only a legally capacitated adult may sign the deed.
- capacitate staff
- The agency will capacitate staff through regular courses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- enable
- Enable is the natural everyday verb, while capacitate sounds technical, bureaucratic and much rarer.
- empower
- Empower stresses giving people control or authority, whereas capacitate stresses giving them the actual skill or legal ability.
- qualify
- Qualify means to make or become eligible by meeting requirements, and it is used much more often than capacitate.
- equip
- Equip suggests supplying tools or skills, but capacitate can mean granting formal legal power too.
Opposites
Word family
- capacity noun
- the ability to do something, or the largest amount something can hold
- capacitation noun
- the process of becoming able, especially for sperm to fertilize
- incapacitate verb
- to make someone unable to function normally
- capacitated adjective
- made able to do something
Commonly confused: capacitate or incapacitate? capacitate or capacitor?
capacitate vs incapacitate
Incapacitate is the opposite: it means to make someone unable to act, while capacitate means to make them able.
capacitate vs capacitor
A capacitor is an electronic part that stores charge and is a different word in meaning.
Practice
The training program is designed to ______ local teachers to lead their own workshops.
Choose one answer.
Capacitate means to give the ability to do something. Incapacitate has the opposite meaning, and hesitate and castigate do not take someone to do something.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “capacitate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.