# articulate
## English
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin articulātus (“distinct, articulated, jointed”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more).

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) enPR: ärtĭ'kyələt, IPA: /ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪk.jʊ.lət/
* (US) enPR: ärtĭ'kyələt, IPA: /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.lət/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪkjʊlɪt
* Rhymes: -ɪkjʊleɪt

#### Adjective

articulate (comparative more articulate, superlative most articulate)
* Clear; effective.
* Speaking in a clear and effective manner.
    She’s a bright, articulate young woman.
* Consisting of segments united by joints.
    jointed articulate animals
    The robot arm was articulate in two directions.
* Distinctly marked off.
    an articulate period in history
* (obsolete) Expressed in articles or in separate items or particulars.
** 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “II. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:articulate sounds
* (obsolete, of sound) Related to human speech, as distinct from the vocalisation of animals.
** 1728, James Knapton, John Knapton, Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, page 146:Brutes cannot form articulate Sounds, cannot articulate the Sounds of the Voice, excepting some few Birds, as the Parrot, Pye, &c.

##### Synonyms

* (good at speaking): eloquent, well-spoken

##### Derived terms

* articulately
* articulateness
* biarticulate
* exarticulate
* hyperarticulate
* inarticulate
* interarticulate
* multarticulate
* multiarticulate
* octarticulate
* pluriarticulate
* prearticulate
* quadriarticulate
* semiarticulate
* sexarticulate
* subarticulate
* triarticulate
* unarticulate
* uniarticulate

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From a substantivation of the above adjective through the associated taxon's name, Articulata (see -ate (noun-forming suffix)).

#### Noun

articulate (plural articulates)
* (zoology) An animal of the subkingdom Articulata.
** 1977, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History):They considered articulates to be pre-adapted for an eleutherozoic existence because they possess muscular arms which are potentially of value in crawling and swimming, as in comatulids.

##### Related terms

* inarticulate

### Etymology 3

From the adjective, see the etymology at -ate (verb-forming suffix).

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) enPR: ärtĭ'kyəlāt, IPA: /ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪk.jʊ.leɪt/
* (US) enPR: ärtĭ'kyəlāt, IPA: /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.leɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)

#### Verb

articulate (third-person singular simple present articulates, present participle articulating, simple past and past participle articulated)
* (transitive) To make clear or effective.
* (ambitransitive) To speak clearly; to enunciate.
    I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.
* (transitive) To explain; to put into words; to make something specific.
    I like this painting, but I can’t articulate why.
* (transitive) To bend or hinge something at intervals, or to allow or build something so that it can bend.
    an articulated bus
* (music, transitive) to attack a note, as by tonguing, slurring, bowing, etc.
    Articulate that passage heavily.
* (anatomy, intransitive) to form a joint or connect by joints
    The lower jaw articulates with the skull at the temporomandibular joint.
* (obsolete) To treat or make terms.
** c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 1, scene 9, lines 75–77:Send us to Rome / The best, with whom we may articulate / For their own good and ours.

##### Derived terms

* articulable
* articulatability
* articulatable
* articulative
* articulator
* articulatory
* coarticulate
* dearticulate
* disarticulate
* exarticulate
* malarticulate
* misarticulate
* overarticulate
* rearticulate
* underarticulate

##### Related terms

* articulation
* pseudoarticulated
* pseudoarticulation

##### Translations
### Further reading

* “articulate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “articulate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

## Latin
### Verb

articulāte
* second-person plural present active imperative of articulō

### References

* “articulate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* articulate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

## Spanish
### Verb

articulate
* second-person singular voseo imperative of articular combined with te