Meaning & use
incorporated
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparablebusinessAmerican
Legally formed as a corporation, with its own legal identity apart from its owners.
Grammar: Often shortened to Inc. after a company name.
Patterns
- incorporated in somewhere
The firm is incorporated in Delaware.
An incorporated business protects its owners from personal debt.
The town became incorporated as a city in 1890.
verbtransitive
Past tense and past participle of incorporate: included as part of something larger.
Grammar: Takes an object: she incorporated the feedback.
Patterns
- incorporate something into something
- incorporate something in something
The architect incorporated old stone into the new wall.
We incorporated your suggestions into the final plan.
The recipe incorporated spices from three countries.
Common combinations
- incorporated in
- The company is incorporated in Nevada.
- incorporated into
- The old bridge was incorporated into the new design.
- fully incorporated
- The feedback was fully incorporated.
- newly incorporated
- The newly incorporated village elected a mayor.
- incorporated company
- An incorporated company must file annual reports.
Synonyms and how they differ
- integrated
- Integrated stresses that parts work together smoothly, while incorporated just says they are included.
- included
- Included is the simple, general word and says nothing about merging parts into one body.
- merged
- Merged implies two things joined into one, with neither staying separate.
- registered
- Registered says an organization is on an official list but is not specifically a corporation.
Opposites
Word family
- incorporate verb
- to include or to form a corporation
- incorporation noun
- the act of including or of forming a company
- corporation noun
- a large company that is a legal entity
- unincorporated adjective
- not formed into a legal corporation
Commonly confused: incorporated or incorporeal?
incorporated vs incorporeal
Incorporeal means without a physical body, as a ghost is, and is unrelated to companies.
Practice
The architect ___ the old tower into the modern design.
Choose one answer.
Incorporated is the past tense meaning built in as part of a whole. Incorporeal is an adjective and incarnated is a different verb about taking bodily form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “incorporated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.