Other forms: participated, participating, participates
To participate is to take part in an activity with others. Participate in the discussion, everybody participated, refuse to participate.
The preposition is in. It is formal — take part is the everyday phrase — and it belongs to reports, invitations and school records. Participation is the noun, and participation rate is a standard statistic in education and sport. Note participant, the person; and participatory, as in participatory democracy, meaning a system where people take part directly rather than through representatives.
1verbparticipateTo take part in an activity with others.
“Everyone in the class is expected to participate in the discussion.”
participate is a taking part.
Latin participare is pars, a part, plus capere, to take — to take part, which is exactly the English phrase translated. Participle, the grammatical term, is the same word: it takes part in two word classes at once.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂p-
Latin
participātus
English, today
participate
Built from
Latin participātus, the perfect passive participle of participō (“to take part in, share in, give part in, impart”) (see -ate and -ate), from particeps (“taking part (in), sharing (in); someone who takes part (in)”), from pars + -ceps; see part and capable. Compare Old English dǣlniman (“to participate”), an earlier calque of the same Latin verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA