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octavate

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octavate¹

  • /ˈɒktəveɪt/
  • /ˈɒkteɪveɪt/

Where it comes from

First attested in 1922; formed as octav(e) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), in the musical sense after the French octavier.

verb octavates · octavating · octavated

  1. intransitive, of an instrument To resonate or sound one octave higher or lower. The string, originally divided, will continue for some time to “octavate”.
  2. intransitive, of a person To span (at least) one octave in playing a musical instrument. Ability to ornament, octavate, play chords and do some improvising.
  3. rare, transitive, construed with up, of an instrument To double the pitch of (a part of itself). A 12-string doubles the octaves of only the lower four strings…. A doubled, capoed guitar “octavates up” the top two strings.
  4. rare To convert (the expression of a number) from denary to octal notation. To octavate the number one hundred the reasoning is as follows. The square of eight goes into one hundred once with remainder thirty-six. This remainder contains eight to the first power four times with remainder four. Hence to express one hundred to the base 8 we write the digits 144 which in somew

Opposite: decimate

octavate²

Where it comes from

First attested in the 2000, from octave + -ate (noun-forming suffix).

noun octavates

  1. rare octave (transfiguratively) There is an octavate of odours as well as octavates of notes in music. Like the keys of instruments, certain odours coincide or blend.

Thesaurus

verb

Opposite: decimate

Translations

Every language

verb sound one octave higher or lower

Portuguêsoitavar
Françaisoctavier

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Cite this
MLA

"octavate." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/octavate. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

octavate. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/octavate

Chicago

"octavate." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/octavate.

BibTeX
@misc{octavate_2026,
  title = {octavate},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/octavate},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}