Definition of "generate" []

• To bring into being; give rise to: generate a discussion. (verb-transitive)
• To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process: generate heat. (verb-transitive)
• To engender (offspring); procreate. (verb-transitive)
• Mathematics To form (a geometric figure) by describing a curve or surface. (verb-transitive)
• Computer Science To produce (a program) by instructing a computer to follow given parameters with a skeleton program. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Only a grammar containing both phrase structure and transformation rules, Chomsky argued, could generate a natural language ” ˜generate™ in the sense that by stepwise application of the rules, one could in principle build up from scratch all and only the sentences that the language contains."
• "And did the title generate the story theme or did the story idea bring that particular title to mind?"
• "She has no brain of her own, so her ideas must generate from the GOP itself."