What does communicate mean?
To communicate is to make information, ideas, or feelings known to others, whether through speech, writing, gestures, images, or digital media. It can be used transitively — she communicated her concerns to the committee — or intransitively, describing the act of exchanging messages: the two teams communicate daily by email. Beyond human interaction, the word also applies to transmitting diseases (as in communicable illnesses) and, more formally, to physical connections such as communicating doors between rooms. Derived from the Latin communicare, meaning 'to share' or 'to make common,' the word carries the underlying idea that true communication creates something held jointly by those involved. It is neutral in register and universally applicable, making it one of the most essential verbs in English. Related forms include communication, communicative, and communicator, all pointing to the same central act of establishing shared understanding between minds.
To share or exchange information, news, ideas, or feelings with another person by speaking, writing, gesturing, or using another medium.
"The manager communicates expectations clearly during team meetings."
Can be used transitively ('communicate a message') or intransitively ('they communicate well').
To transmit a disease, illness, or infection from one person, animal, or organism to another.
"The virus can be communicated through close contact with an infected person."
(Of rooms, buildings, or passages) To be connected so that it is possible to pass directly from one to the other.
"A narrow corridor communicates between the library and the garden room."
This sense is formal and relatively uncommon in modern usage.
The word 'communicate' literally means 'to make common' — every conversation you have is an act of building shared ground.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of communicate
Communicate derives from the Latin verb communicare, meaning 'to share' or 'to make common,' itself formed from communis, meaning 'shared' or 'belonging to all.' The word entered English via Latin, first appearing in the sense of imparting or transmitting something in the late medieval period, with its modern sense of exchanging information becoming dominant from around the 16th century onward. It shares its root with a family of English words including common, communal, community, and communion — all built on the idea of things held in common.
Related word forms
How communicate is actually used
Standard in all registers, from everyday speech to formal writing. In medical contexts, 'communicate' often specifically means to transmit a disease (hence 'communicable disease'). The intransitive sense of connecting rooms or passages ('a communicating door') is somewhat formal and more common in British English.
Easily confused with communicate
"Commune" means to share intimate thoughts or feelings (or to live in a communal group), while "communicate" is the broader term for conveying any information or meaning.