populate

Meanings

1. 1verbtransitive

   To live in a place, especially in large numbers, or to move into an empty area and settle there.

   Grammar: Takes an object: settlers populated the valley. Often used in the passive: the island is populated by sheep.

   Patterns

   • populate somewhere
   • be populated by someone

   Settlers from many countries populated the valley over two centuries.

   Thousands of seabirds populate the cliffs each spring.

   Dense forests are populated by deer and wolves.

2. 2verbtransitivecomputing

   To fill a database, table or form with data, either by hand or automatically.

   Grammar: Takes an object, often followed by with: populate the table with data.

   Patterns

   • populate something with something

   The script will populate the spreadsheet with last year's sales figures.

   Choosing a country will automatically populate the city list.

   We populated the test database with fake customer records.

3. 3verbtransitivefigurative

   To fill a scene, story or place with characters or things.

   Grammar: Takes an object and often a with phrase, used for fiction and art: she populated the novel with eccentric villagers.

   Patterns

   • populate something with something

   The author populated her novel with eccentric villagers.

   The designer populated the model town with tiny cars and trees.

   Ghosts populate the old house in the children's story.

Word forms

Common combinations

sparsely populated

The northern region is sparsely populated.

densely populated

Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth.

populate a database

The software will populate the database overnight.

populate the area

Several species populate the area around the lake.

populate with data

You can populate the chart with data from a file.

populate a field

Typing a zip code will populate the field automatically.

Synonyms and how they differ

inhabit

Inhabit stresses living in a place, while populate suggests many people or animals filling it.

settle

Settle focuses on making a home in a new place, which populate does not require.

occupy

Occupy means to take up or hold a space, and can be temporary, unlike populate.

fill

Fill is the plain, general word and works for data, rooms or containers, but lacks the sense of living there.

Opposites

Word family

population noun

all the people or animals living in a place

populated adjective

having people living there

populous adjective

having a large population

depopulate verb

to greatly reduce the number of people in an area

repopulate verb

to fill an area again with people or animals

Commonly confused: populate or populous? populate or popular?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “populate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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