conjugate: Meaning and Definition of

con•ju•gate

Pronunciation: (v.kon'ju-gāt"adj., n.kon'ju-git, -gāt"), [key]
— v., adj., n. -gat•ed, -gat•ing,
—v.t.
  1. One conjugates the present tense of the verb “be” as “I am, you are, he is, we are, you are, they are.”
    1. to inflect (a verb).
    2. to recite or display all or some subsets of the inflected forms of (a verb), in a fixed order:One conjugates the present tense of the verb “be” as “I am, you are, he is, we are, you are, they are.”
  2. to join together, esp. in marriage.
—v.i.
  1. to unite; to undergo conjugation.
  2. to be characterized by conjugation:esse does not conjugate in the passive voice. The Latin verb
—adj.
  1. joined together, esp. in a pair or pairs; coupled.
  2. (of a pinnate leaf&hasp;) having only one pair of leaflets.
  3. (of words) having a common derivation.
  4. (of two leaves in a book) forming one sheet.
    1. (of two points, lines, etc.) so related as to be interchangeable in the enunciation of certain properties.
    2. (of an element) so related to a second element of a group that there exists a third element of the group that, multiplying one element on the right and the other element on the left, results in equal elements.
    3. (of two complex numbers) differing only in the sign of the imaginary part.
  5. NH
    1. of or noting two or more liquids in equilibrium with one another.
    2. (of an acid and a base) related by the loss or gain of a proton:NH3 is a base conjugate to NH4⫀. NH4⫀ is an acid conjugate to NH3.
    3. Also,con&prim;ju&syl;gat&sec;ed.(of an organic compound) containing two or more double bonds each separated from the other by a single bond.
—n.
  1. one of a group of conjugate words.
    1. either of two conjugate points, lines, etc.
    2. Also calledcon&prim;jugate com&prim;plex num&prim;ber.either of a pair of complex numbers of the type a + bi and a − bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is imaginary.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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