generate

Etymology

From Latin generātus, perfect passive participle of generō (“beget, procreate, produce”), from genus (“a kind, race, family”); see genus.

verb

1. (transitive) To bring into being; give rise to.
   The discussion generated an uproar.
   The Ecclesiastical Commission was generated by Sir Robert Peel and bore the marks of Peel’s personality; bureaucratic, capable and cold. 1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 126
   In the last 20 minutes Athletic began to generate the sort of pressure of which they are capable, but by then it was far too late: the game had begun to slip away from them as early as the seventh minute. May 9, 2012, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian
   The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled. 2013-06-22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
2. (transitive) To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process.
   Adding concentrated sulphuric acid to water generates heat.
3. (transitive) To procreate, beget.
   They generated many offspring.
4. (transitive, mathematics) To form a figure from a curve or solid.
   Rotating a circle generates a sphere.
5. (intransitive) To appear or occur; be generated.
   Mrs. Fennel, seeing the steam begin to generate on the countenances of her guests, crossed over and touched the fiddler's elbow and put her hand on the serpent's mouth. 1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers