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emasculate

emas·cu·late/əˈmæs.kjəˌleɪt/verb, adjective

emasculate is spelled E-M-A-S-C-U-L-A-T-E: 10 letters and 3 syllables (emas·cu·late). It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 95,993rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, emasculate means “To deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in emasculate?

Letters10: E-M-A-S-C-U-L-A-T-E
Syllables3: emas·cu·late
In writingabout once in every 10 million words; the 95,993rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is emasculate?

Emasculate appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 95,993rd 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).

How do you pronounce emasculate?

  • UK /ɪˈmask.jʊlˌeɪt/
  • UK /ɪˈmask.jəˌleɪt/
  • US /əˈmæs.kjəˌleɪt/

As an adjective (“Deprived of virility or vigor; unmanned, weak”): /ɪˈmask.jʊ.lət/, /ɪˈmask.jə.lət/, /əˈmæs.kjəˌleɪt/.

Emasculate has 3 syllables, split emas·cu·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-emasculate.wav, En-au-emasculate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of emasculate

  • emasculates present, singular, he/she/it
  • emasculating participle, present
  • emasculated participle, past
  • more emasculate comparative
  • most emasculate superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does emasculate mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld.

  2. 2

    To remove the entire male genitalia (the testicles, scrotum, and penis) of (a person or animal).

  3. 3

    To deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to weaken; to render effeminate; to vitiate by unmanly softness.

  4. 4

    Of a flower: to deprive of the anthers.

adjective

  1. 1

    Deprived of virility or vigor; unmanned, weak.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Emasculate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchémasculer (to deprive of virile or procreative power; to…), émasculé (deprived of virility or vigor)
Germanentmannen (to deprive of virile or procreative power; to…), entmannt (deprived of virility or vigor), schwächen (to deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to…)
Spanishemascular, castrar (to deprive of virile or procreative power; to…), emasculado, castrado (deprived of virility or vigor), debilitar, feminizar (to deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to…)
Portugueseemasculado, castrado (deprived of virility or vigor)

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 emasculate come from?

From Medieval Latin ēmasculātus, perfect passive participle of ēmasculō (“to emasculate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ē(x)- (“out, from, apart”) + masculus (“male, masculine”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), further from mās (“a man, a male”) + -culus (diminutive suffix).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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