Definition of "nucleate" [nu•cle•ate]

• Nucleated. (adjective)
• To bring together into a nucleus. (verb-transitive)
• To act as a nucleus for. (verb-transitive)
• To provide a nucleus for. (verb-transitive)
• To form a nucleus. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "The researchers used an instrument called a transmission electron microscope to watch how nanowires made of silicon "nucleate," or begin to form, before growing into wires, said Eric Stach, an assistant professor of materials engineering at Purdue University."
• "Sever the ties that bind the nonsmokers of Framingham or worse, nucleate a large social network with a proselytizing smoker, and then, cataclysmically, the network might alter as a whole."
• "Well, when the tunneling takes place, a small, microscopic bubble would nucleate somewhere in our universe."