What does multiplicate mean?
Multiplicate means consisting of many parts, repetitions, or copies, and it can also refer to a multiple or to one of several equivalent copies. Its best-known use is probably in the formal expression “in multiplicate,” meaning that a document was prepared or circulated more than once. The adjective can also describe material produced through repeated multiplication or replication, while older mathematical writing uses it in terms such as “multiplicate ratio.” Today, the word sounds formal and somewhat dated compared with the more familiar “multiple.” Nevertheless, it remains useful because it can convey not merely a large quantity but the idea of repetition or multiplication. A document “in multiplicate,” for example, exists in several corresponding versions, whereas a “multiple document” might simply be one of a larger number of related documents. The word ultimately points to the same ancient concept that underlies “multiply”: increasing one quantity through repeated addition or multiplication.
Consisting of many parts, repetitions, or copies; involving multiplication.
"The report was distributed in multiplicate copies to every regional office."
Formal and relatively uncommon; often found in legal, administrative, literary, or older mathematical usage.
A multiple or one of a set of identical copies.
"The publisher supplied the form in multiplicate so that each department could retain a copy."
Chiefly formal or archaic, and most often encountered in the phrase “in multiplicate.”
The plural is rare and chiefly occurs in formal or legal contexts; the fixed phrase “in multiplicate” is more usual.
"Each of the multiplicates was signed by a different authorized officer."
Hidden inside multiplicate is an idea of folding: its Latin ancestor combined “many” with “to fold,” reflecting the multiplication of one quantity into several.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does multiplicate come from?
The word entered English from Latin multiplicare, “to multiply,” with multiplicate derived from its Latin participial form multiplicatus. Latin multiplicare combined multus, “many,” with plicare, “to fold,” a development reflected in the underlying image of one quantity being multiplied into another. Its relatives include plication, implication, application, and replication, all of which involve the Latin root plicare.
How multiplicate is actually used
Multiplicate is now relatively uncommon and has a formal, literary, or archaic tone. The phrase “in multiplicate” is especially associated with legal, official, and administrative documents; the adjective and mathematical terminology also occur in older and specialized writing.
Easily confused with multiplicate
Multiplicate chiefly describes something consisting of many parts, repetitions, or copies, whereas replicate more often means to reproduce something or to exist in an identical form.