Meaning & use

populate

verb·Academic

To live in and fill an area, or to supply a database, list, or system with data.

See it in a sentence

Wolves once populated much of the forest before hunting drove them out.

The software automatically populates the form with the customer's saved details.

A note on using this word

Populate is used literally for people or animals living in a place, and technically in computing for automatically filling fields with data.

Words with a similar meaning

inhabitfill

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “populate”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.