Word
devote
Phoneticsde·vote
US/dɪˈvoʊt/
UK/dɪvˈəʊt/
Definitions
01to give time or effort
v. to give a lot of your time, effort, or money to something you believe is important.
v. to commit time, effort, or resources to a specific cause, activity, or person. This sense is transitive and almost always followed by the preposition 'to'.
“She decided to devote her weekends to volunteering at the local animal shelter.”
“The research team will devote the remainder of the fiscal year to analyzing the data collected during the clinical trials.”
General-service
Usage
Usually takes the form 'devote something to something/someone'.
Pitfall
He devoted his life for helping others.
He devoted his life to helping others.
The verb 'devote' is followed by the preposition 'to', not 'for'.
02to use space or a part for a purpose
v. to use a particular area or part of something for one specific purpose.
v. to designate or set aside a specific portion of a physical or abstract entity for a particular use.
“The magazine will devote five pages to the interview with the famous director.”
“The museum chose to devote an entire wing to the works of local artists from the nineteenth century.”
Academic
Usage
Often used when discussing the allocation of space in publications or buildings.
03to doom or hand over
v. to give someone or something over to a bad fate or a specific power.
v. to consign or hand over to a particular fate, often a negative one. This usage is less common in modern speech and carries a more serious, final tone.
“In the old story, the hero was devoted to a life of wandering.”
“The ancient text describes how the city was devoted to destruction by the invading army.”
Literary · Archaic
Teaching tip
This sense is rare in modern English; learners will mostly encounter it in older literature or religious texts.
Synonyms
Real-World Examples
“And all those phones devote a lot of memory to AI services that not everyone cares about.” “For the Artemis astronauts, their time without contact with the Earth will allow them to devote all of their attention to the Moon.” Etymology
Borrowed from Latin dēvōtus, past participle of Latin dēvoveō (“dedicate by a vow, sacrifice oneself, promise solemnly”). Doublet of devow; see also devout. Displaced native Middle English ēstful, from Old English ēstful.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/devote