amate

From Spanish (papel) amate (“amate paper”), from Classical Nahuatl āmatl (“paper”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈmɑːteɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈmɑteɪ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

amate (plural amates)

1. Paper produced from the bark of adult Ficus trees.
2. An art form based on Mexican bark painting from the Otomi culture.

From Old French amater, amatir.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /əˈmeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

amate (third-person singular simple present amates, present participle amating, simple past and past participle amated)

1. (obsolete) To dishearten, dismay.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Shall I accuse the hidden cruell fate, / And mightie causes wrought in heauen aboue, / Or the blind God, that doth me thus amate, / For hoped loue to winne me certaine hate?

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax (translator), Jerusalem Delivered, Tasso, XI, xii:

     Upon the walls the pagans old and young / Stood hush'd and still, amated and amazed.

   • 1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC:

     The Silures, to amate the new general, rumoured the overthrow greater than was true.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.230:

     For the last […], he will be much amazed, he will be much amated.

   • c. 1815, John Keats, To Chatterton:

     Thou didst die / A half-blown flow'ret which cold blasts amate.

From a- +‎ mate.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /əˈmeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

amate (third-person singular simple present amates, present participle amating, simple past and past participle amated)

1. (obsolete) To be a mate to; to match.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     More lucklesse disadventures did amate

• A team, A-team

• IPA^(key): /aˈmate/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ate
• Syllabification: a‧ma‧te

amate

1. present adverbial passive participle of ami

• IPA^(key): /aˈma.te/

amate

1. past participle of amar

• IPA^(key): /aˈma.te/^[1][2]
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: a‧mà‧te

amate

1. inflection of amare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

amate

1. feminine plural of amato

amate

1. feminine plural of amato

amate f

1. plural of amata

• a tema

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aˈmaː.tɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈmaː.te]

amāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of amō

amāte

1. vocative masculine singular of amātus

amāte

1. vocative singular of amātus

amate

2. inflection of amata (“everlasting”):
   1. locative singular masculine/neuter
   2. accusative plural masculine
   3. vocative singular feminine

amate

2. locative singular of amata (“immortality”)

From Proto-Bantu *màtáì. Doublet of amata.

amaté class 6

1. (Kirundi) saliva

   Synonym: (Rwanda) amacandwe

• IPA^(key): /aˈmate/ [aˈma.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ate
• Syllabification: a‧ma‧te

Borrowed from a Nahuan language; cf. Classical Nahuatl āmatl.

amate m (plural amates)

1. fig tree (Ficus sp.)
   1. (Guerrero) Ficus obtusifolia

      Synonym: amate blanco

   2. (Oaxaca) petiolate fig (Ficus petiolaris)

      Synonym: amate amarillo

   3. (Chiapas, Tabasco) Ficus segoviae
   4. (Oaxaca) Florida strangler fig (Ficus aurea)

      Synonym: amate prieto

2. creeping fig (Ficus pumila)
3. amate paper

   Synonym: papel amate

4. amate (art form)

• → English: amate

amate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of amar combined with te
2. inflection of amatar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• Catalogo alfabético de nombres vulgares y científicos de plantas que existen en México, México: Imprenta de la Dirección de Estudios Biológicos, 1923, page 42
• Schoenhals, Louise C. (1988), A Spanish - English Glossary of Mexican Flora and Fauna‎^[1], Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 16

• “amate”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025