MEANING
To regard someone or something with deep respect approaching reverence.
Use it for
describing respect that has a near-sacred quality; showing a community’s attitude toward a revered figure; distinguishing reverence from ordinary approval or likingConveys reverent respect, especially toward a person, memory, or object treated as having enduring importance. Writing functions: Reverence / Memory.
Words that belong together
- venerate an ancestor
- venerate a memory
- a venerated figure
On the page
The villagers venerated the old physician, though few remembered whom she had actually saved.
He had been taught to venerate the letters, not to read them critically.
Word forms
- Base
- venerate
- Past tense
- venerated
- Past participle
- venerated
- Present participle
- venerating
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- venerate
- Present continuous
- am/is/are venerating
- Present perfect
- have/has venerated
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been venerating
- Past
- venerated
- Past continuous
- was/were venerating
- Past perfect
- had venerated
- Past perfect continuous
- had been venerating
- Future
- will venerate
- Future continuous
- will be venerating
- Future perfect
- will have venerated
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been venerating
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive verb: venerates, venerated, venerated, venerating. Future will venerate. Venerate someone or something; no required preposition before the object. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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