Etymology From Latin generō (“beget, procreate, produce”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from genus (“a kind, race, family”, gener- in compounds) + -ō; see genus. Compare Italian generare, French générer (and its older (and now obsolete) English cognate from Middle French, gender (“engender, breed, copulate”)).
1
To bring into being; give rise to.
The discussion generated an uproar.
The Ecclesiastical Commission was generated by Sir Robert Peel and bore the marks of Peel’s personality; bureaucratic, capable and cold.1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 126:
3 more examples
In the last 20 minutes Athletic began to generate the sort of pressure of which they are capable, but by then it was far too late: the game had begun to slip away from them as early as the seventh minute.2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian:
The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
“If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who’s going to win the race?” she said.2026 February 8, Alexandra Alter, quoting Coral Hart, “The New Fabio Is Claude”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
2
To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process.
Adding concentrated sulphuric acid to water generates heat.
3
To procreate, beget.
They generated many offspring.
4
Mathematics, Sciences To form a figure from a curve or solid.
Rotating a circle generates a sphere.
5
To appear or occur; be generated.
Mrs. Fennel, seeing the steam begin to generate on the countenances of her guests, crossed over and touched the fiddler's elbow and put her hand on the serpent's mouth.1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers:
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin generātus, perfect passive participle of generō (“beget, procreate, produce”). See Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.
But neither is one time generated in another; for if the preſent be generated in the future, the future muſt be present; and if in the paſt, the paſt. The ſame may be ſaid of other times; therefore one time is not generated in another. Now if time be neither generated in itſelf, nor one time in another, it is not generate at all. But that it is not ingenerate, we ſhewed also. Therefore ſeeing it is neither generate nor ingenerate, it is not at all; for every Beeing muſt either be generate or ingenerate.1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[A Summary of Scepticism.] Chap[ter] XVII. Of Time.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 4th part (Containing the Sceptick Sect), Book II (Of Physick), page 87:
It poses the thorny problem of the status of the Logos. Is he generate or ingenerate?.. Justin replies that he is generate—but in a special sense.1965, R. A. Norris, God & World in Early Chrisian Theology, volume ii. 67: