What does relate mean?
Relate is a versatile verb used to describe connections, comparisons, and accounts. In its most common sense, it means to connect one person or thing with another, as in a report that relates climate change to changing agricultural practices or a critic who relates a film to a wider cultural movement. It can also mean to tell a story or give an account: a witness relates what they saw, or a biography relates the life of an important figure. Another established use is to compare things by describing similarities or differences between them. Although relate is often encountered in formal writing, it is fully standard in everyday English and can carry the broader implication of making something understandable through its connection to something else. The word is especially useful because it covers both the act of establishing links and the act of presenting information as a narrative.
To connect or associate something with something else; to have a connection or correspondence with something.
"The findings relate closely to the conditions in coastal regions."
Common in formal, academic, and explanatory contexts.
To tell or narrate something, especially a story, event, or personal account.
"She related her experiences as a volunteer in the mountain village."
Often used in historical, legal, biographical, and reported contexts.
To compare one thing with another by referring to similarities or differences between them.
"The article relates traditional painting practices to contemporary techniques."
Frequently appears in the construction “relate A to B.”
Relate is the verb behind the idea that everything has a story—and that stories make sense through their connections.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does relate come from?
Relate comes from Latin referre, meaning “to bring back” or “to carry back,” with the past participle relatus used in related forms. In English, the word developed the sense of bringing something forward in an account and then broadened to mean telling or narrating. Its connection sense developed from the idea of establishing a relationship between two things.
Related word forms
How relate is actually used
The phrase “relate to” is especially common in formal and academic contexts. The sense of telling a story is common in legal, biographical, and historical writing, while comparisons are often expressed with “relate A to B.”
Easily confused with relate
Relate is a verb meaning to connect, compare, or tell about something, while relation is a noun meaning a connection or relationship.
Relate is a verb, whereas relative is primarily an adjective or noun meaning connected, family-related, or a family member.