ambulate
am·bu·late/ˈæm.bjuˌleɪt/verb
ambulate is a verb meaning “To walk; to relocate oneself under the power of one's own legs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-M-B-U-L-A-T-E and has 3 syllables (am·bu·late), and it appears about once in every 40 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does ambulate mean?
verb
- 1
To walk; to relocate oneself under the power of one's own legs.
For patients who can ambulate, a bedpan is usually not needed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce ambulate?
- UK /ˈæm.bjʊ.leɪt/
- US /ˈæm.bjuˌleɪt/
- US /ˈæm.bjəˌleɪt/
Ambulate has 3 syllables, split am·bu·late in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ambulate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ambulate
- ambulates present, singular, he/she/it
- ambulating participle, present
- ambulated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is ambulate?
Ambulate appears about once in every 40 million words in written English, the 194,306th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Ambulate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense walk; relocate oneself using one's legs:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | gehen, wandeln, umherwandeln, umherziehen, herumspazieren, herumwandeln |
| Spanish | ambular |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ambulate come from?
From Latin ambulātus, past participle of ambulō (“to walk, go about”). Doublet of amble.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).