What does indurate mean?
Indurate is a formal word meaning hardened, tough, rigid, or stubbornly resistant to change. In medical and anatomical contexts, it can describe tissue that has become unusually hard, often as a result of inflammation, scarring, or another chronic process. It may also characterize a person as obstinate or inflexible, usually with a critical or disapproving tone. As a verb, indurate means to make something hard or tough, or to become hard, as when intense pressure causes soil to indurate. The word is more common in specialized writing than in everyday speech. Knowing it is useful because it expresses with precision a condition that might otherwise be described more generally as hardening, rigidity, or stubbornness, while also pointing to its historical connection with endurance and durability.
Hardened, tough, or rigid; also, in figurative use, obstinate or unwilling to change.
"The physician noted several indurate areas within the inflamed tissue."
Especially used in medical and technical writing; the figurative sense is formal and often negative.
To make or become hard or tough; to cause something to harden.
"Extreme heat may indurate the clay until it resembles stone."
Can be transitive or intransitive and is now relatively uncommon outside specialist contexts.
Hardened by age, pressure, or inflammation? That is precisely what “indurate” describes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does indurate come from?
Indurate comes from Latin indurare, an intensive form of durare, meaning “to make hard” or “to last.” The word entered English in the 17th century and was initially associated with making substances hard or tough. Its relatives endure, durable, duration, and durability continue the same Latin tradition of endurance and firmness.
Related word forms
How indurate is actually used
The word is formal and relatively uncommon in general English. It is especially used in medical, geological, and legal contexts; in the sense of stubbornness, it has a distinctly critical tone.
Easily confused with indurate
“Indurate” is the base adjective or verb, while “indurated” is its common past participle and adjectival form.
“Endure” means to suffer or last, whereas “indurate” means to become hard or to describe something hardened.