Meaning & use
educate
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To teach someone over a period of time, especially in a school or college, so that they gain knowledge and skills.
Grammar: Takes an object: educate children.
Patterns
- educate someone
- be educated at somewhere
The village school educates about two hundred children.
She was educated at a small college in the mountains.
Parents want to educate their children in the best way they can.
verbtransitive
To give people information so that they understand something and perhaps change their behavior.
Grammar: Often with about: educate people about health.
Patterns
- educate someone about something
- educate the public
The campaign aims to educate drivers about the danger of texting.
Nurses educate new parents on how to bathe a baby.
The museum hopes to educate visitors about local wildlife.
Word forms
| third person singular | educates |
|---|---|
| past tense | educated |
| past participle | educated |
| -ing form | educating |
Common combinations
- educate the public
- The leaflet is meant to educate the public about recycling.
- educate children
- Free schools educate children from poor families.
- educate yourself
- You should educate yourself about your rights.
- educate about
- Doctors educate patients about healthy eating.
- well educated
- She is well educated and speaks four languages.
Synonyms and how they differ
- teach
- Teach can be a single lesson or skill, while educate suggests longer-term, broader development.
- instruct
- Instruct focuses on giving directions or training in a specific skill, and sounds more formal.
- inform
- Inform just passes on facts, while educate aims at deeper understanding.
- school
- School as a verb suggests thorough training in a certain way, and it is less common than educate.
Opposites
Word family
- education noun
- the process of learning and teaching
- educator noun
- a teacher or person who works in education
- educational adjective
- relating to education or giving knowledge
- educated adjective
- having had a good education
- uneducated adjective
- lacking formal schooling
Commonly confused: educate or educe?
educate vs educe
Educe is a rare word meaning to draw out or bring forth; do not use it for teaching.
Practice
The health department launched a campaign to ___ residents about the risks of smoking.
Choose one answer.
After to, the base verb educate is needed. Educated and educating are the wrong forms, and education is a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “educate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.