participate
- 01 B1 Intermediate
to join in an activity or event with others.
to take part in an activity, event, or collective effort. This is an intransitive verb that almost always takes the preposition 'in'.
Simple“Everyone in the class was encouraged to participate in the discussion.”
In context“The researchers invited local residents to participate in the study by completing a detailed questionnaire about their daily habits.”
UsageAlways used with the preposition 'in' when followed by an object.
Teacher's tipLearners often confuse this with 'attend'. Remind them that 'attend' means just being there, while 'participate' means being active.
PitfallShe participated the meeting yesterday. She participated in the meeting yesterday.You must use the preposition 'in' after participate when mentioning the activity.
Usage actively participate
Borrowed from Latin participātus, the perfect passive participle of participō (“to take part in, share in, give part in, impart”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from particeps (“taking part (in), sharing (in); someone who takes part (in)”, particip- in compounds), from pars (“part”, part- in compounds) + -ceps (“which takes, taker”), literally “(someone) who takes part”; see part and capable. Compare Old English dǣlniman (“to participate”), an earlier calque of the same Latin verb.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.