instigate
verb
Did you know?
It's time to investigate the true meaning of instigate. Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in "siblings instigating a fight"), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring something up that one did not necessarily initiate ("the court's decision incited riots"), while instigate implies responsibility for initiating or encouraging someone else's action, and usually suggests dubious or underhanded intent ("he was charged with instigating a conspiracy"). Coming from a form of the Latin verb instigare ("to urge on or provoke"), instigate stepped into English in the 1500s, roughly a century after incite.
Synonyms
Examples of instigate in a Sentence
William M. Moon, Foreign Affairs, 5 Nov. 2024
This could lead to greater engagement with the issue of what kinds of civilian segments are instigating and consolidating coups.
—Salah Ben Hammou, The Conversation, 22 Oct. 2024
Von then explains that drinking instigates the desire to do coke.
—Brady Brickner-Wood, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2024
However, prosecutors argued that Marks instigated the road rage and eye-witness accounts consistently stated that the unarmed Stamates never entered the car.
—Quinlan Bentley, The Enquirer, 3 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for instigate 
Dictionary Entries Near instigate
Cite this Entry
“Instigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/instigate. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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