different between regulate vs rectify

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin regulatus, past participle of regul? (“to direct, rule, regulate”), from regula (“rule”), from reg? (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”). Compare regle, rail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????j?le?t/
• Hyphenation: re?gu?late

Verb

regulate (third-person singular simple present regulates, present participle regulating, simple past and past participle regulated)

1. To dictate policy.
2. To control or direct according to rule, principle, or law.
   • 1834, George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the Continent

     The herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes, and regulated their own police.

3. To adjust to a particular specification or requirement: regulate temperature.
4. To adjust (a mechanism) for accurate and proper functioning.

   to regulate a watch, i.e. adjust its rate of running so that it will keep approximately standard time

   to regulate the temperature of a room, the pressure of steam, the speed of a machine, etc.

5. To put or maintain in order.

   to regulate the disordered state of a nation or its finances

   to regulate one's eating habits

Derived terms

• deregulate
• downregulate
• upregulate

Related terms

• rule
• ruler
• regular
• regulation
• regulator

Translations

Further reading

• regulate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• regulate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• legature

Latin

Verb

r?gul?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of r?gul?

English

Etymology

From Middle English rectifien, from Anglo-Norman rectifiier, rectefier (“to make straight”), from Medieval Latin r?ctific? (“to make right”), from Latin r?ctus (“straight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???kt??fa?/

Verb

rectify (third-person singular simple present rectifies, present participle rectifying, simple past and past participle rectified)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To heal (an organ or part of the body). [14th-18th c.]
2. (transitive) To restore (someone or something) to its proper condition; to straighten out, to set right. [from 16th c.]
3. (transitive) To remedy or fix (an undesirable state of affairs, situation etc.). [from 15th c.]

4. (transitive, chemistry) To purify or refine (a substance) by distillation. [from 15th c.]
5. (transitive) To correct or amend (a mistake, defect etc.). [from 16th c.]
6. (transitive, now rare) To correct (someone who is mistaken). [from 16th c.]
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:

     For thus their Sense informeth them, and herein their Reason cannot Rectifie them; and therefore hopelessly continuing in mistakes, they live and die in their absurdities […]

7. (transitive, geodesy, historical) To adjust (a globe or sundial) to prepare for the solution of a proposed problem. [from 16th c.]
8. (transitive, electronics) To convert (alternating current) into direct current. [from 19th c.]
9. (transitive, mathematics) To determine the length of a curve included between two limits.
10. (transitive) To produce (as factitious gin or brandy) by redistilling bad wines or strong spirits (whisky, rum, etc.) with flavourings.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:repair

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• certify, cretify