adumbrate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.
-
to foreshadow; prefigure.
-
to darken or conceal partially; overshadow.
verb
-
to outline; give a faint indication of
-
to foreshadow
-
to overshadow; obscure
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
adumbratesimple
-
adumbratessimple
-
have adumbratedperfect
-
has adumbratedperfect
-
am adumbratingprogressive
-
are adumbratingprogressive
-
is adumbratingprogressive
-
have been adumbratingperfect progressive
-
has been adumbratingperfect progressive
Past
-
adumbratedsimple
-
had adumbratedperfect
-
was adumbratingprogressive
-
were adumbratingprogressive
-
had been adumbratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of adumbrate
First recorded in 1575–85; from Latin adumbrātus “shaded,” past participle of adumbrāre “to shade,” from ad- ad- + umbr(a) “shade, shadow” + -āre, infinitive verb suffix
Explanation
To adumbrate something is to outline it. In an English essay, you could adumbrate the themes in a novel; or, in a letter to Santa, you could adumbrate all the ways you have been behaving. Adumbrate is built on the Latin root umbra, "shade," and the image it evokes is of a shadow being cast around something. Your outline is like a shadow of something bigger — like the themes in that novel or the ways you have been behaving. You can also use adumbrate to mean "foreshadow": "The scene where the princess dreams of the vampire adumbrates her later discovery that her little brother is, in fact, a vampire."
Vocabulary lists containing adumbrate
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
2015 National Spelling Bee Words
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His photographs have used a variety of techniques to adumbrate this world.
From New York Times • Aug. 10, 2017
Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian But as soon as you adumbrate thus, you are beset with misgivings.
From The Guardian • Apr. 19, 2016
Together with the bare facts of the retreat at Walden, those lines have become the ones by which we adumbrate Thoreau, so that our image of the man has also become simplified and inspirational.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 19, 2015
In the midst of Author Beebe's spells, one is continually jerked up by the wish that, on his present trawling trip to Galapagos, he may lose the word "adumbrate" forever overboard.
From Time Magazine Archive
From now onwards the speeches of Brutus strangely adumbrate those of Hamlet.
From The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar by Black, Ebenezer Charlton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
