as in stimulates
to give life, vigor, or spirit to
Mr. Clark animates history for his sixth graders by frequently showing up for class dressed like some famous historical figure
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Recent Examples of animates
Today, similar prudence animates concerns about NATO and broader trans-Atlantic ties in an era when Europe has undergone profound transformations through mass migration, supranational governance, demographic decline, and shifting cultural priorities.
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Daniel Ross Goodman, The Washington Examiner, 9 Jan. 2026
Users upload an image along with a script or voice sample, and generative AI animates the face into a conversational digital persona capable of real-time dialogue.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 Jan. 2026
Yet what animates the novel isn’t really accurate historical reconstruction but the sense of genre devouring itself.
—Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
The Poetry Potluck Education/youth development (arts) Part poetry reading, part block party, the Poetry Potluck is a community gathering that animates historically Black spaces with verse, music, food‑sharing, art activations, and conversation.
—Emily Bramhall, Miami Herald, 20 Nov. 2025
This idea animates every encounter between Ma and Boomba until the distinction between good and bad, right and wrong, begins to dissolve.
—Tope Folarin, The Atlantic, 8 Nov. 2025
Telemann’s music animates Jonathan Swift’s outlandish story, with spirited dances by the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput and strident rhythms of the giant Brobdingnagians.
—Sheila Regan, Twin Cities, 28 Oct. 2025
The trailer will be available as part of free animation sample project teaming Unreal Engine and Agora Studios to produce free animation sample project, allowing animators to see what other animates are doing.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 11 Oct. 2025
Yet what distinguishes Bowles’s work—what animates those strange, angular sentences, with their unexpected rhythms and turns of phrase and rabid energy—isn’t its interest in nonconformity but its obsession with spiritual transformation.
—Nicole Flattery, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for animates
Verb
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The viral beauty gadget stimulates collagen, boosts circulation, and leaves you with plump, youthful results.—
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Continuing to seek out mental and social challenges stimulates brain metabolism, neuroplasticity and vascular health, according to Efrati, who also serves as chair of the medical advisory board at Aviv Clinics, which operates in Florida and Tel Aviv.—
Verb
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More than three devices is considered a cluster that arouses interest.—
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That intense scarcity arouses a FOMO among very wealthy car lovers that allows Ferrari to charge prices like $250,000 for one of its entry-level cars, and $3 million for a hypercar like its F80.—
Cite this Entry
“Animates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animates. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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