How to Use precipitate in a Sentence

precipitate

1 of 3 verb
  • The budget problem was precipitated by many unexpected costs.
  • Her death precipitated a family crisis.
  • Some salts of cyanide can precipitate out and build up as a kind of sediment.
    — Quanta Magazine, 1 June 2022
  • The rise of the handshake did not precipitate the loss of hat-doffing.
    — Ann Manov, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026
  • When asked what precipitated the study now, Bauges pointed to a map.
    — Rose Evans, Idaho Statesman, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The show depicts the events that precipitate a teenager’s suicide.
    — Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Jan. 2022
  • Their top concern is that the central banks will raise rates too much and then precipitate a global recession.
    — Tom Aspray, Forbes, 23 May 2022
  • That is a long way from here and would certainly precipitate recession.
    — Milton Ezrati, Forbes, 1 Aug. 2022
  • This is because the things that precipitated out of the mixture are denser than the liquid left behind.
    — Ray Petelin, CBS News, 22 Nov. 2025
  • But his unswerving support for the war has already helped precipitate a historic rupture in that space.
    — Peter Smith, ajc, 27 Sep. 2022
  • This would precipitate more of the vitriol that sows seeds of division in our country.
    — Chicago Tribune, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Requests for the ring came in thick and fast, which precipitated the launch of the jewelry label.
    — Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 20 May 2026
  • What follows is a lot like what precipitated the original kiss.
    — Kathleen Walsh, Vulture, 17 Feb. 2026
  • My panic might have been precipitated by notice of a hole in the back wall of the press box, courtesy of a previous foul ball.
    — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 12 June 2023
  • At no point in this speech, or anywhere else, does Biden state that sending tanks alone to Ukraine would precipitate a world war.
    — Nate Trela, USA TODAY, 18 Feb. 2023
  • That could precipitate a longer-lasting shift in how A-listers engage with crypto.
    — Brian Contrerasstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2023
  • That precipitated this rapid process.
    — Chandler Rome, New York Times, 5 June 2026
  • Rihanna is always flanked by a team of people who precipitate upon her arrival.
    — ELLE, 16 Mar. 2022
  • The storm had caused ammonia vapor to precipitate down to lower levels, perhaps for hundreds of years to come.
    — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 17 Aug. 2023
  • One event did not precipitate the other, but the throughline is impossible to ignore.
    — TIME, 13 Feb. 2024
  • If the courts ruled against one of the new laws, and the government chose to ignore the ruling, that would precipitate a serious crisis.
    — Danna Harman, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Feb. 2023
  • On the other hand, Burks’ combine performance might precipitate a drop.
    — Dallas News, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Some survivors have criticized the process and called for full release of the files, which are precipitating global fallout.
    — John Parkinson, ABC News, 24 Feb. 2026
  • In the absence of video showing what might have precipitated the attack, many were reserving judgment.
    — Jake Offenhartz, Fortune, 4 May 2023
  • Some have cautioned that the collapse of these banks is likely precipitating a global recession.
    — Justin Klawans, The Week, 4 May 2023
  • And, other changes would likely need to occur to precipitate a large rate decline, according to Long.
    — Tim Maxwell, CBS News, 19 May 2026
  • In the worst case, Putin could precipitate a wider war, and, in that scenario, the gargantuan fiscal cost would be the least of our problems.
    — The Editors, National Review, 19 May 2022
  • Democrats, as the party of government, have been known to escape blame for shutdowns arguably precipitated by their own actions.
    — W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 2 Oct. 2025
  • When the bank’s customers started pulling their own funds amid a tech industry slump, the bank had to sell off its holdings at a loss, precipitating a bank run that destroyed it.
    — Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 8 Aug. 2023
  • And there were risks, most notably that the infusions could precipitate a premature delivery.
    — Gina Kolata, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2022

precipitate

2 of 3 noun
  • The polyester precipitates from the solvent upon cooling, and can likewise be reused.
    — New Atlas, 26 Nov. 2025
  • Could that aforementioned depth precipitate more 4-3 looks this year?
    — Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Although, the dusty precipitate may be melting away with the morning sun, the snow may have left a lasting impression on our local record books.
    — Jared Boyd, AL.com, 9 Dec. 2017
  • If the alkalinity gets too high, a chemical precipitate forms which can be toxic to ocean plankton.
    — Eric Niiler, WSJ, 6 Mar. 2022
  • Hi-hats and snares appear in fragmentary bursts, icy synths precipitate and evaporate, and Zel slithers wryly in the cut.
    — Olivier Lafontant, Pitchfork, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Does the mere act of making banks and other companies reveal their carbon footprint precipitate progress on eliminating climate risk?
    — Tim McDonnell, Quartz, 21 May 2021
  • Acid can be used to leach elements like calcium out, then a chemical or energetic process precipitates that calcium as calcium hydroxide.
    — Scott K. Johnson, ArsTechnica, 15 May 2026
  • The longer this cooling time is, the more likely the individual precipitate is to grow, according to details released by MIT.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2025
  • One such innovative solution is to utilize the natural ability of microbes to precipitate minerals.
    — Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Every summer, calcium carbonate precipitates from the lake’s warming water and falls to the lakebed, creating a visible barrier between each year of sediment.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 July 2023
  • Gadgil and his students have been exploring several methods to perform the actual arsenic removal, generally involving binding up the poison into a precipitate that can be filtered.
    — Evan Ackerman, IEEE Spectrum, 28 Feb. 2015
  • To physically produce this new, strong, small-precipitate alloy, the team realized 3D printing would be the way to go instead of traditional metal casting, in which molten liquid aluminum is poured into a mold and is left to cool and harden.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2025
  • The new high-pressure acid leaching smelter will produce 66,000 tons of nickel in mixed hydroxide precipitate each year when completed, using nickel ore from Vale Indonesia’s mines.
    — Yessar Rosendar, Forbes.com, 28 Aug. 2025
  • As the water increases in temperature, CaCO3 undergoes a chemical reaction and precipitates out of the water, forming incrustants, or little crystals.
    — Alyssa Hui, Verywell Health, 14 Mar. 2024

precipitate

3 of 3 adjective
  • This is all to the good, and better than a precipitate total withdrawal.
    — The Editors, National Review, 22 Aug. 2017
  • The final scenes, in which Stockmann resolves to reëducate the people on his own, unfold in even more precipitate, sketchy fashion.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Many writers, mostly men, continue to rely on rape as a nuclear option for female characters, a tool with which to impassion viewers, precipitate drama, and stir up controversy.
    — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 4 May 2021
  • Those updates references – and the series of chases, Rube Goldberg mechanisms, and bits of derring-do they all precipitate – also allowed the filmmaking to push their formal boundaries.
    — Ben Croll, Variety, 14 June 2023
  • These include the threat to Europe’s auto industry from China, made worse by the European Union’s precipitate race to force an EV new car monopoly by 2035.
    — Neil Winton, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'precipitate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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