conjugate

English

Etymology

The adjective (as “combined, united”) and noun are first attested in 1471, in Middle English, the verb in 1530; partly from Middle English conjugat(e) (“combined, united”), partly directly borrowed from New Latin coniugātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin coniugō (“to yoke together, combine; (New Latin) to conjugate, decline, inflect”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from con- (“with”) + iugō (“to join”). In Classical Latin, the word for conjugate (grammar) was dēclīnō, coniugō is a later back-formation from post-classical coniugātiō (“conjugation, declension”).

Pronunciation

verb
noun, adjective

Verb

conjugate (third-person singular simple present conjugates, present participle conjugating, simple past and past participle conjugated)

  1. (grammar, transitive) To inflect (a verb) for each person, in order, for one or more tenses; to list or recite its principal parts.
    Coordinate term: decline
    In English, the verb 'to be' is conjugated as follows: 'I am', 'you are', 'he/she/it is', 'we are', 'you are', 'they are'.
  2. (mathematics) To multiply on the left by one element and on the right by its inverse.
  3. (rare) To join together, to unite; to juxtapose.
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 55:
      The effects of hunger were often conjugated with epidemic disease.
  4. (biology, of bacteria and algae) To temporarily fuse, exchanging or transferring DNA.

Hypernyms

Derived terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *yewg- (0 c, 33 e)

Translations

Noun

conjugate (plural conjugates)

  1. Any entity formed by joining two or more smaller entities together.
  2. (algebra, of a complex number) A complex conjugate.
  3. (algebra) More generally, any of a set of irrational or complex numbers that are zeros of the same polynomial with integral coefficients.
  4. (algebra, field theory, of an element of an extension field) Given a field extension L / K and an element α ∈ L, any other element β ∈ L that is another root of the minimal polynomial of α over K.
  5. (mathematics) An explementary angle.
  6. (grammar) A word agreeing in derivation with another word, and therefore generally resembling it in meaning.
    • 17th c, John Bramhall,
      We have learned in logic, that conjugates are sometimes in name only, and not in deed.
  7. (immunology) A weak and a strong antigen covalently linked together

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

conjugate (not comparable)

  1. United in pairs; yoked together; coupled.
    Antonym: dysconjugate
    • 1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 290:
      Some of the most widely-applied Gresley features will doubtless long remain a subject of controversy among locomotive engineers, and in particular his patent conjugate valve-motion for 3-cylinder engines, whereby the piston-valve of the middle cylinder derives its motion from the two outside Walschaerts valve-gears.
  2. (botany) In single pairs; coupled.
  3. (chemistry) Containing two or more radicals supposed to act the part of a single one.
  4. (grammar) Agreeing in derivation and radical signification; said of words.
  5. (mathematics) Presenting themselves simultaneously and having reciprocal properties; said of quantities, points, lines, axes, curves, etc.

Derived terms

Translations

Spanish

Verb

conjugate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of conjugar combined with te
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