1. -ate a suffix occurring orig. in loanwords from Latin, as adjectives (literate; passionate), nouns (candidate; prelate), and esp. past participles of verbs, which in English may function as verbs or adjectives (consecrate; considerate; translate); now used also as a verb-forming suffix in English (calibrate; hyphenate).
2. -ate a specialization of -ate1, used to form the names of salts corresponding to acids whose names end in -ic : nitrate; sulfate.
3. -ate a suffix occurring orig. in nouns borrowed from Latin that denote offices or functions (consulate; triumvirate), as well as institutions or collective bodies (electorate; senate); sometimes extended to denote a person who exercises such a function (magistrate; potentate), an associated place (consulate), or a period of office or rule (protectorate); now joined to stems of any origin and denoting the office, term of office, or territory of a ruler or official (caliphate; khanate).
Etymology: (< L -ātus (gen. -ātūs), generalized from v. ders)
Definition of '-ate'
Webster Dictionary
1. -ate as an ending of participles or participial adjectives it is equivalent to -ed; as, situate or situated; animate or animated
2. -ate as the ending of a verb, it means to make, to cause, to act, etc.; as, to propitiate (to make propitious); to animate (to give life to)
3. -ate as a noun suffix, it marks the agent; as, curate, delegate. It also sometimes marks the office or dignity; as, tribunate
4. -ate in chemistry it is used to denote the salts formed from those acids whose names end -ic (excepting binary or halogen acids); as, sulphate from sulphuric acid, nitrate from nitric acid, etc. It is also used in the case of certain basic salts
Definitions of -ate 
