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simulate

USSIM-yuh-layt/ˈsɪm.jəˌleɪt/UKSIM-yuu-layt/ˈsɪm.jʊˌleɪt/
As an adjectiveSIM-yuh-lit

Formssimulates, simulating, simulated

2 meanings of simulate

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To model or reproduce the behavior, appearance, or properties of something.

    Engineers simulate crash conditions to test how a car frame absorbs impact.

    The software can simulate years of climate change in a few minutes.

    Similarmodel, reproduce, replicate, recreate, imitate

    Note

    This verb was borrowed in 1652 from Latin simulō, which meant both "make like" and "feign." It is built on similis, "like," the root of similar. The sense here keeps the making-like half: what is simulated stands in for the real thing, as a smoke machine stands in for fog or a video game for a pinball machine. The feigning half belongs to the obsolete adjective "feigned".

  2. 2
    adjectiveobsolete
    Feigned or pretended; not genuine.
    under simulate religion
    1545, John Bale, The Image of Both Churches
    Note

    The adjective came into Middle English around 1425, more than two centuries before the modeling verb. It stood directly before its noun, like a participle without its -ed. John Bale's The Image of Both Churches (1545) speaks of living "under simulate religion," a faith put on rather than held. The use is now obsolete, so a modern writer who wants this meaning says feigned or pretended.

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Origins

Meaning 1

First attested in 1652, borrowed from Latin simulātus, the perfect passive participle of simulō ('make like, imitate, copy, represent, feign'), which comes from similis ('like').

Meaning 2

First attested around 1425 in Middle English as symulat(e), simulat(e), or similat(e) ('feigned; similar'), inherited from Middle English and borrowed from Latin simulātus, sharing its origin with Etymology 1.