mutate

UK/mjuːˈteɪt/US/ˈmju.teɪt/

verbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,779 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: mutated, mutating, mutates

To mutate is to change form, especially in living things. The virus mutated, mutated genes, mutate over time.

Most mutations do nothing at all, a few are harmful and very few are useful, and that last group is what natural selection works on. Viruses mutate fastest because their copying is sloppy, which is why influenza vaccines are reformulated yearly. Note mutation; and that the Latin means to change, the same root as moult.

Definitions of mutate

1verbmutateTo change form, especially in living things.B2+
“Cancer begins when cells in the body mutate and start to grow out of control.”

mutate is a changing of form.

Where it comes from

A back-formation from mutation, from Latin mutare, to change. Moult, mutual and commute come from the same changing.

Proto-Indo-European
*mey- (change)
Latin
mūtō — to exchange; to change, to vary
English, today
mutate

1796; a back-formation from mutation on the basis of -ate, ultimately from Latin mūtō (“to exchange; to change, to vary”). a doublet of moult.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

mutate in the wild

Manipulation of the genes behind these traits led to the current understanding of how organisms form and how traits mutate within a population.
Wild type
The player controls a cube-shaped beast called a Cubivore, which eats other such beasts in order to mutate and become stronger.
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
When placing the piece into the pocket the player can mutate the piece, i.e. change it to a different piece.
Pocket mutation chess

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the mūtō family

mutate

mutate — used about once every 7,127 pages · #10,779 · point at the bar for the others

← Vocabulary

mutate

UK/mjuːˈteɪt/US/ˈmju.teɪt/

verbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,779 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: mutated, mutating, mutates

To mutate is to change form, especially in living things. The virus mutated, mutated genes, mutate over time.

Definitions of mutate

1verbmutateTo change form, especially in living things.B2+
“Cancer begins when cells in the body mutate and start to grow out of control.”

mutate is a changing of form.

Where it comes from

A back-formation from mutation, from Latin mutare, to change. Moult, mutual and commute come from the same changing.

Proto-Indo-European
*mey- (change)
Latin
mūtō — to exchange; to change, to vary
English, today
mutate

1796; a back-formation from mutation on the basis of -ate, ultimately from Latin mūtō (“to exchange; to change, to vary”). a doublet of moult.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

mutate in the wild

Manipulation of the genes behind these traits led to the current understanding of how organisms form and how traits mutate within a population.
Wild type
The player controls a cube-shaped beast called a Cubivore, which eats other such beasts in order to mutate and become stronger.
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
When placing the piece into the pocket the player can mutate the piece, i.e. change it to a different piece.
Pocket mutation chess

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the mūtō family

mutate

mutate — used about once every 7,127 pages · #10,779 · point at the bar for the others