articulate

Formsarticulates, articulating, articulated

Pluralarticulates

1. 1
   adjective

   Able to express thoughts clearly and effectively in speech, with good enunciation and delivery.

   The candidate was remarkably articulate during the televised debate.

   Articulate witnesses tend to make a strong impression on a jury.

   Similareloquent, well-spoken

   Oppositeinarticulate, incoherent, tongue-tied

2. 2
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To pronounce words clearly and distinctly; to enunciate.

   The actor trained to articulate even under intense emotional strain.

   She articulated each consonant with great care for the recording.

   Similarenunciate, pronounce

   Oppositemumble, slur, mutter

   Note

   Here the material is speech sounds, not ideas. The concern is how words leave the mouth. The verb works with or without an object: you can articulate your words, or you can simply articulate well. When the thing being made clear is a thought or a reason, the meaning has moved to putting ideas into words.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To put thoughts or feelings into words; to explain or state something specifically.

   The report tries to articulate a vision for the next decade.

   She articulated the problem in terms everyone understood.

   Similarexpress, voice, state, formulate, explain

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To make something clear or effective in its expression or design.

   Careful spacing can articulate the rhythm of a poem.

   The architect articulated the facade with bold vertical lines.

   Similardefine, clarify, accentuate, delineate

   Oppositeobscure, blur

   Note

   Both strands of the Latin source show here: articulātus meant "distinct" as well as "jointed." To articulate a facade or a poem's rhythm is to make its parts stand clear of one another, the way joints mark off a limb. The adjective reached English first, in 1531, and the verb followed in 1551.

5. 5
   adjective

   Clear and effective in expression or form.

   He gave an articulate account of how the accident happened.

   The proposal was articulate and tightly structured.

   Similarclear, coherent, lucid, eloquent, cogent

   Oppositeincoherent, inarticulate, unclear, muddled

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To hinge or build something so that it can bend at intervals.

   Manufacturers articulate the long trailer to improve its turning radius.

   The sculptor articulated the figure's limbs with movable joints.

   Similarhinge, joint

   Note

   The participle articulated carries this verb into everyday phrases like an articulated bus, a long vehicle built to bend at a joint. The verb takes a direct object, so you articulate the trailer or the limb. That sets it apart from the anatomical verb, where the jointed part is the subject and its partner follows with.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To connect with another part by forming a joint.

   The ribs articulate with the vertebrae along the spine.

   The femur articulates with the pelvis at the hip.

   Similarconnect, join

   Note

   Anatomists use it intransitively, and the bone is always the subject: the jaw articulates with the skull, the femur with the pelvis. The partner bone follows with. The joint itself, when named, follows at, as in with the skull at the temporomandibular joint. Never write that one bone articulates another, because that transitive pattern belongs to the hinging verb.

8. 8
   adjective

   Made up of segments united by joints.

   Lobsters and crabs have an articulate exoskeleton.

   The model used an articulate frame so each limb could move freely.

   Similarjointed, segmented

9. 9
   adjective

   Distinctly separated or marked off into parts.

   The map showed articulate boundaries between the regions.

   The composition has articulate sections, each set clearly apart.

   Similardistinct, discrete, separate, defined, clear

   Oppositeindistinct, blurred, vague

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To attack or shape a musical note, as by tonguing, slurring, or bowing.

    Wind players must articulate every note precisely in the rapid run.

    The cellist articulated the phrase with short, separated bow strokes.

    Note

    A performer's word for how a note begins and how it joins its neighbors. Wind players do it with the tongue and string players with the bow. A slur binds notes together instead of separating them. In a rehearsal instruction it usually takes an adverb of manner, as in articulate that passage heavily. The question is never whether to articulate, but how sharply or smoothly.

11. 11
    nouncountable

    An animal belonging to the former subkingdom Articulata, having a body built from united segments.

    Insects and worms were once grouped together as articulates.

    Each articulate in the old classification had a body of repeated segments.

    Note

    A name tied to an older zoological grouping, Articulata, and its plural is articulates. The term was still in use in 1977, when the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) discussed articulates whose muscular arms could serve in crawling and swimming, as in comatulids. Read it as a label belonging to a particular classification, not as a general word for any jointed creature.

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