articulate
/ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪk.jʊ.lət/
articulate means clear; effective. It carries an Arena rating of 1475, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, articulate ranks #152 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,014 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,297 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #3,527 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
articulate is pronounced /ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪk.jʊ.lət/.
Why “articulate” is a great word
Clear and effective in speech or expression, or to express an idea or feeling fluently and coherently. From the Latin articulatus, the past participle of articulare ("to divide into joints, to utter distinctly"), from articulus ("small joint, division, article"), first attested in English as an adjective in 1531 and as a verb in 1551. Unlike "eloquent," which suggests a sweeping, persuasive fluency, or "inarticulate," which mumbles and fumbles in the dark, "articulate" prizes the jointed precision of thought made audible: the clean click of a key in a well-oiled lock, the deliberate placement of each vertebra in a spine, the crisp enunciation of a speaker who knows each syllable must land. It is the voice that does not shout, but carries—the skeletal grace of understanding made plain.
Etymology
The adjective is first attested in 1531, the verb in 1551; borrowed from Latin articulātus (“distinct, articulated, jointed”), perfect passive participle of articulō, see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3). Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
adj
- Clear; effective.
- Speaking in a clear and effective manner; having both good articulation and good elocution.e.g.“She’s a bright, articulate young woman.”
- Consisting of segments united by joints.e.g.“jointed articulate animals”
- Distinctly marked off.e.g.“an articulate period in history”
- Expressed in articles or in separate items or particulars.e.g.“articulate sounds” — 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “II. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William
- Related to human speech, as distinct from the vocalisation of animals.e.g.“Brutes cannot form articulate Sounds, cannot articulate the Sounds of the Voice, excepting some few Birds, as the Parrot, Pye, &c.” — 1728, James Knapton, John Knapton, Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, page 146:
- Articulated (all senses).
noun
- An animal of the subkingdom Articulata.e.g.“They considered articulates to be pre-adapted for an eleutherozoic existence because they possess muscular arms which are potentially of value in crawling and swimming, as in comatulids.” — 1977, Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History):
verb
- To make clear or effective.
- To speak clearly; to enunciate.e.g.“I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.”
- To explain; to put into words; to make something specific.e.g.“I like this painting, but I can’t articulate why.”
- To bend or hinge something at intervals, or to allow or build something so that it can bend.e.g.“an articulated bus”
- To attack a note, as by tonguing, slurring, bowing, etc.e.g.“Articulate that passage heavily.”
- To form a joint or connect by joints.e.g.“The lower jaw articulates with the skull at the temporomandibular joint.”
- To treat or make terms.e.g.“Send us to Rome / The best, with whom we may articulate / For their own good and ours.” — c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 1, scene 9, lines 75–77:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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