Articulates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To express thoughts or ideas clearly and effectively ; to form a joint or connection between parts of a structure
2. To pronounce words distinctly to communicate clearly ; to connect bones or parts so they move smoothly together
3. To convey information in a clear and coherent manner ; to link components through joints for movement or stability

Etymology: "Articulates" is the third-person singular form of "articulate", so the story belongs to the verb. The Latin source, "articulātus", meant "distinct" or "jointed", and it was built from "articulus", a little joint or limb, the diminutive of "artus", a joint. The physical sense came first: to articulate something was to fit parts together at their joints, and the anatomical meaning of a joint linking two bones survives in that sense. The idea of speech being "jointed" into distinct units followed naturally. A speaker who breaks sound into clearly separated words and syllables is doing with language what a skeleton does with bones, so the verb came to mean giving utterance to something in distinct, intelligible pieces. English first used the adjective in 1531 and the verb in 1551, and the sense of clear, coherent expression grew out of that sense of distinct parts fitting together.

Synonyms: expresses, communicates, conveys, enunciates, pronounces

Antonyms: mumbles, slurs, stutters