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OneKitly

demonstrate

verbcommon in dialogue

  • Canada//ˈdɛm.ənˌstɹeɪt//
  • Australia//ˈdem.ənˌstɹæɪt//

To show how to use (something).

verb

  1. 1

    To show how to use (something).

    Can you demonstrate the new tools for us?

    In this tape, a velvet-voiced narrator provides a stroke-by-stroke guide to massaging your partner. As she speaks, comely nude couples demonstrate.

  2. 2

    To show the steps taken to create a logical argument or equation.

  3. 3

    To participate in or organize a demonstration.

    Those people outside are demonstrating against the election results.

  4. 4

    To show, display, or present; to prove or make evident

    The debate was not long on policy, as questions about the Affordable Care Act and the war in Syria demonstrated.

    "What we are trying to demonstrate is that freight lines at lower speeds can be electrified much more cheaply. […]"

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *de Proto-Indo-European *-h₁ Proto-Indo-European *déh₁ Proto-Italic *dē Latin dē Latin dē- Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *monéyeti Proto-Italic *man-eje- Proto-Italic *moneō Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Italic *-trom Proto-Italic *monestrom Latin mōnstrum Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin mōnstrō Latin dēmōnstrō Latin dēmōnstrātusbor. English demonstrate Borrowed from Latin dēmonstrātus, the perfect passive participle of dēmonstrō (“to show, point at”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Cognate with French démontrer.

Forms

past tense
demonstrated
past participle
demonstrated
present participle
demonstrating
third person singular
demonstrates
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).