ingenerate

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/ɪnˈdʒɛnəɹət//ɪnˈdʒɛnəɹeɪt/

adjective

Innate, inborn.

“a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon ingenerate or encrease this disposition of lowlinee and abjection”

Opposite
Scrabble 11

Meanings

ingenerate1

adjectiveingenerate (comparative more ingenerate, superlative most ingenerate)

comparative more ingenerate · superlative most ingenerate

  1. archaicInnate, inborn.

    Pure and unspotted from all loathly crime That is ingenerate in fleshly slime.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    1 more example

    Those virtues were […]rather feigned and affected things to serve his ambition, than true qualities ingenerate in his judgement or nature.

    1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC
verbingenerate (third-person singular simple present ingenerates, present participle ingenerating, simple past and past participle ingenerated)

present singular third person ingenerates · participle present ingenerating · participle past ingenerated · past ingenerated

  1. transitiveTo generate or produce within; to beget or engender; to cause.

    a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon ingenerate or encrease this disposition of lowlinee and abjection

    1 more example

    those noble habits that upon that account are ingenerated in the Soul, as Religion, Gratitude, Obedience, and Tranquillity of Mind

    a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC

ingenerate2

adjectiveingenerate (not comparable)
  1. not comparablerareNot generated, self-existent.

    The first Synod of Sirmium anathematises those who […] identify the Holy Ghost with the Ingenerate God.

    1894, Henry Barclay Swete, “III. 35”, in Apostles's Creed
    1 more example

    But neither is one time generated in another; for if the preſent be generated in the future, the future muſt be present; and if in the paſt, the paſt. The ſame may be ſaid of other times; therefore one time is not generated in another. Now if time be neither generated in itſelf, nor one time in another, it is not generate at all. But that it is not ingenerate, we ſhewed also. Therefore ſeeing it is neither generate nor ingenerate, it is not at all; for every Beeing muſt either be generate or ingenerate.

    1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[A Summary of Scepticism.] Chap[ter] XVII. Of Time.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 4th part (Containing the Sceptick Sect), Book II (Of Physick), page 87

    Antonyms: generate

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveNot generated, self-existent.

Opposite
Also see

Origin

ingenerate · adjective, verb

  1. Latiningenerātus
  2. Englishingenerate

First attested in 1528; borrowed from Latin ingenerātus, perfect passive participle of ingenerō, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Full word history & related roots →

ingenerate · adjective

  1. Late Latiningenerātus
  2. Englishingenerate

First attested in 1656; borrowed from Late Latin ingenerātus, from in- (“not”) + generātus.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ingenerate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ingenerate

MLA

“ingenerate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ingenerate. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ingenerate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ingenerate.

Source: ingenerate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.