Meaning

3 senses

  1. To regulate, adjust or adapt.

    (transitive)To change the pitch, intensity or tone of one's voice or of a musical instrument.

    modulieren

    модулироватьmodulirovatʹ

    adjust the pitch, tone, or volume of

  2. (transitive)To vary the amplitude, frequency or phase of a carrier wave in proportion to the amplitude etc of a source wave (such as speech or music).

    модулироватьmodulirovatʹ

    модулюва́тиmoduljuváty

    vary the frequency, amplitude, phase, or other characteristic of (electromagnetic waves)

  3. (intransitive, transitive)To move from one key or tonality to another, especially by using a chord progression.

    modulieren

    модули́роватьmodulírovatʹ

    модулюва́тиmoduljuváty

Examples

3 sentences

  1. In this section, the composer modulates to many different keys.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · mailohilohi · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. In this section, the piece modulates to the parallel minor key.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · mailohilohi · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. We've seen law enforcement across the country start to take a more modulated approach.

    CC0 · Tatoeba · Cangarejo · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

8 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
to vary the amplitude etc.:
Русский
By meaning 2
to regulate:
to move from one key to another (intransitive):
Deutsch
By meaning 1
to regulate:

Origin

From Latin modulor (“to measure, regulate, modulate”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from m

From Latin modulor (“to measure, regulate, modulate”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from modulus (“measure”). Compare module, modulus. By surface analysis, modul(e) + -ate.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

modulates, modulating, modulated, modulated
Base formmodulate · to modulate
3rd person singularmodulates
Present participlemodulating
Past simplemodulated
Past participlemodulated

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theymodulate
he, she, itmodulates

Past simpleLesson

all personsmodulated

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave modulated
he, she, ithas modulated

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill modulate

Synonyms

3 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • fix or adjust the time, amount, degree, or rate of:regulate
  • vary the pitch of one's speech:toneinflect

Word family

29 related words
RelatedmodemB1demodulatemodulationmodulatormodulemodulus
Derivedamplitude modulationangiomodulatingchronomodulatedcomodulatedownmodulatefrequency modulationimmunomodulateimmunomodulatingintermodulatemodulatablemodulativemodulatoryneuromodulatenonmodulatednonmodulatingovermodulatephase modulationpremodulateradiomodulatedradiomodulatingremodulateunmodulatedupmodulate

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
modificationB2modifyB1modishmodularmodulemodulomoist
modulate — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto