Ovate
adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An egg-shaped hand axe.
"Slightly derived handaxes from the Mildenhall glaciofluvial sands, generally in fresh condition and dominated by ovates and cordates."
- 2 An Irish bard.
- 3 A member at a certain grade of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a neo-druidism order based in England.
- 4 A modern-day bard of a gorsedd, especially one acknowledged at an eisteddfod.
- 1 To give someone an ovation. rare, transitive
- 2 To applaud enthusiastically. intransitive, rare
- 1 Shaped like an egg.
"The Geese, Anserinæ, have the body ovate, the head small, the bill stout and somewhat conical; the legs rather long; the wings of great length and breadth."
- 2 With the broadest extremity near the base.
- 1 rounded like an egg wordnet
- 2 of a leaf shape; egg-shaped with the broader end at the base wordnet
Example
More examples"The Geese, Anserinæ, have the body ovate, the head small, the bill stout and somewhat conical; the legs rather long; the wings of great length and breadth."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ōvātus, from ōvum (“an egg”) + -ātus; see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Ultimately from a Celtic language, see Proto-Celtic *wātis.
Borrowed from Latin ovātus, perfect passive participle of ovō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Related phrases
More for "ovate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.