menstruate
men·stru·ate/ˌmɛnstɹuˈeɪt/verb
menstruate is a verb meaning “To undergo menstruation, to have a period” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-E-N-S-T-R-U-A-T-E and has 3 syllables (men·stru·ate), and it appears about once in every 13 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does menstruate mean?
verb
- 1
obsoleterareTo stain with or as if with menses.
- 2
To undergo menstruation, to have a period.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteMenstrual.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce menstruate?
- UK /ˈmɛnstɹʊeɪt/
- US /ˌmɛnstɹuˈeɪt/
- US /ˈmɛnstɹəˌweɪt/
Menstruate has 3 syllables, split men·stru·ate in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-menstruate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of menstruate
- menstruates present, singular, he/she/it
- menstruating participle, present
- menstruated participle, past
- menstrate
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is menstruate?
Menstruate appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 110,368th 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).
Menstruate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to undergo menstruation:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | avoir ses règles |
| German | menstruieren, den Monatsfluss haben |
| Portuguese | menstruar |
| Spanish | menstruar |
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 menstruate come from?
From menstruum + -ate (verb-forming suffix); sense 2 (“to undergo menstruation”) is possibly a back-formation from menstruation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).