dilute

English

Etymology

From Latin dīlūtus, from dīluere (“to wash away, dissolve, cause to melt, dilute”), from dī-, dis- (“away, apart”) + luere (“to wash”). See lave, and compare deluge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /daɪˈljuːt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /daɪˈlut/, /dɪˈlut/
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /dɑeˈlʉt/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): [dɑe̯ˈlʉt]
• Rhymes: -uːt

Verb

dilute (third-person singular simple present dilutes, present participle diluting, simple past and past participle diluted)

1. (transitive) To make thinner by adding solvent to a solution, especially by adding water.

   Antonyms: condense, concentrate

   • 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem:

     Mix their watery store / With the chyle's current, and dilute it more.

2. (transitive) To weaken, especially by adding a foreign substance.

   Synonyms: abase, dash, sophisticate; see also Thesaurus:adulterate

   • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “[The First Book of Opticks. Part I.] ”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 36:

     For if these Colours be diluted and weakened by the Mixture of any adventitious light, the distance between the places of the Paper will not be so great.

   • 1856, L. S. Lavenu, chapter XXXIII, in Erlesmere; or, Contrasts of Character‎^[1], volume 1, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 336:

     “Stay a little.”
     “Not another second: language and discussion dilute thought; I will say no more.”

   • 1980 August 30, Jil Clark, quoting Jane, “Gays Talk About Registration and the Draft”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 9:

     It's healthy to have people in the military who would perhaps rather be somewhere else; they can dilute the more gung-ho military types.

   • 2025 October 27, Russell Berman, “‘California Is Allowed to Hit Back’”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], archived from the original on 4 November 2025:

     Courts have repeatedly struck down Republican-drawn maps on the grounds that they constitute illegal racial gerrymanders designed to dilute the electoral power of Black voters, who overwhelmingly cast Democratic ballots.

3. (transitive, stock market) To cause the value of individual shares or the stake of a shareholder to decrease by increasing the total number of shares.
4. (intransitive) To become attenuated, thin, or weak.

   It dilutes easily.

Derived terms

• dilutee
• diluteness
• diluter
• dilutive
• haemodiluting
• overdilute
• predilute
• semidilute
• underdilute
• undilute

Related terms

• diluent
• dilutable
• dilutant
• dilution
• dilutory
• diluvium

Translations

to add more of a solvent to a solution; especially to add more water

Arabic: خَفَّفَ (ḵaffafa) Bulgarian: разреждам (bg) (razreždam), разводнявам (bg) (razvodnjavam) Catalan: diluir (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 稀釋 / 稀释 (zh) (xīshì) Czech: ředit (cs), zředit (cs) Dutch: verdunnen (nl) Finnish: laimentaa (fi), ohentaa (fi) French: diluer (fr), couper (fr) (about wine mainly) Galician: diluír (gl) German: verdünnen (de) Greek: αραιώνω (el) (araióno) Hebrew: דילל (dilél) Hungarian: hígít (hu) Icelandic: þynna Italian: diluire (it) Japanese: 薄める (ja) (usumeru), 希釈する (ja) (kishaku suru) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: ron (ku) Latin: diluere Malagasy: mampihena (mg) Malay: mencair Māori: waimeha Polish: rozcieńczać (pl) Portuguese: diluir (pt) Romanian: dilua (ro) Russian: разбавля́ть (ru) impf (razbavljátʹ), разба́вить (ru) pf (razbávitʹ) Serbo-Croatian: razblažiti (sh) Spanish: diluir (es) Swedish: späda ut, tunna ut (sv) Tibetan: སླ་རུ་གཏོང (sla ru gtong), སླ་པོ་བཟོ (sla po bzo) (causative/voluntary/transitive), སླ་རུ་འགྲོ (sla ru 'gro) (resultative/involuntary/intransitive) Ukrainian: розбавля́ти impf (rozbavljáty), розба́вити pf (rozbávyty), розво́дити impf (rozvódyty), розвести́ pf (rozvestý) Vietnamese: pha loãng

to weaken

Finnish: laimentaa (fi), heikentää (fi); jatkaa (fi), vesittää (fi) (colloquial) German: verwässern (de), abschwächen (de) Hebrew: החליש (hekhlísh), דל (he) (dal)—also sp. דלל (he) (dalál) (Biblical, archaic), דילדל (dildél) Icelandic: veikja, þynna Latin: hebetare, affligere, deminuere Portuguese: diluir (pt) Spanish: diluir (es), desleír (es) Swedish: späda ut, tunna ut (sv) Tibetan: བསྲེ་ལྷད་གཏོང (bsre lhad gtong), ལྷད་གཏོང (lhad gtong)

stock market: to decrease the value of individual shares by increasing the total number of shares

Finnish: dilutoida, laimentaa (fi) German: verwässern (de) Russian: размыва́ть (ru) impf (razmyvátʹ) Swedish: späda ut Turkish: please add this translation if you can

Adjective

dilute (comparative more dilute, superlative most dilute)

1. Having a low concentration.

   Clean the panel with a dilute, neutral cleaner.

2. Weak; reduced in strength by dilution; diluted.
3. Of an animal: having a lighter-coloured coat than is usual.

   a dilute calico

   a cat with a dilute tortoiseshell coat

Derived terms

• dilute Russell's viper venom time

Translations

having a low concentration

Bulgarian: разреден (bg) (razreden) Finnish: laimea (fi), mieto (fi) French: dilué (fr) m, diluée (fr) f German: verdünnt (de) Hebrew: מדולל m (medulal) Hungarian: híg (hu) Icelandic: þynntur m, þynnt f or n Latin: dilutus Māori: waimeha Polish: rozcieńczony m Romanian: diluat (ro) Russian: разбавленный (ru) (razbavlennyj), разведённый (ru) (razvedjónnyj) Tagalog: binantuan, malabnaw

weak

Finnish: laimennettu (fi), laiha (fi) French: faible (fr) m or f German: verwässert (de) Hebrew: חלש (he) m (chalash), דל (he) m (dal) Icelandic: veikur (is) Irish: caol Latin: imbecillus, mollis

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: (please verify) diluire (it)

Noun

dilute (plural dilutes)

1. An animal having a lighter-coloured coat than is usual.
   • 2000, Joe Stahlkuppe, American Pit Bull Terrier Handbook, page 131:

     On average, blues and other dilutes have weaker coats and skin problems seem more prevalent in the dilutes.

See also

• Concentration on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dilate

References

• “dilute”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “dilute”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Latin

Participle

dīlūte

1. vocative masculine singular of dīlūtus