Meaning & use
dilute
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To make a liquid weaker or thinner by adding water or another liquid.
Grammar: Takes an object: dilute the juice.
Patterns
- dilute something
- dilute something with something
Dilute the lemon juice with a little water before drinking it.
The nurse diluted the medicine so it would be gentler on the stomach.
You can dilute the paint to make it flow more easily.
verbtransitivefigurative
To make something weaker in force, effect, or quality.
Grammar: Takes an object: dilute the message.
Patterns
- dilute something
- dilute the effect of something
Adding too many details can dilute the main point of your essay.
The new rules may dilute the power of the committee.
His later novels dilute the impact of his early, sharper work.
adjectivenot comparabletechnical
Made weaker or thinner by having water or another liquid added.
Grammar: Used before a noun: dilute acid.
Patterns
- dilute acid
- dilute solution
Handle dilute acid with care and wear safety glasses.
The lab technician prepared a dilute solution for the experiment.
Dilute bleach can be used to clean some surfaces.
Word forms
| third person singular | dilutes |
|---|---|
| past tense | diluted |
| past participle | diluted |
| present participle | diluting |
Common combinations
- dilute with water
- Dilute the syrup with water before serving.
- highly dilute
- The sample was highly dilute, so the reaction was slow.
- dilute the effect
- Too many changes may dilute the effect of the new policy.
- dilute a solution
- Students learned how to dilute a solution in chemistry class.
Synonyms and how they differ
- water down
- More informal and often suggests cheating by making something weaker than it should be.
- weaken
- Focuses on loss of strength or power, not on adding liquid.
- thin
- Used mainly for making a liquid or mixture less thick, often in cooking.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dilute or delude? dilute or dilate?
dilute vs delude
Delude means to make someone believe something false; it sounds similar but has a completely different meaning.
dilute vs dilate
Dilate means to become wider or larger, often used for pupils or blood vessels.
Practice
The chef decided to ____ the soup with a little stock because it tasted too strong.
Choose one answer.
Dilute means to make a liquid weaker by adding another liquid, which fits adding stock to reduce strong taste. Delude means to mislead someone, dilate means to widen, and concentrate would make the soup stronger, not weaker.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dilute”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.