What does the verb collocate mean?

What does the verb collocate mean?

• A. The habitual pairing of words that co-occur.
• B. Place near or together; pair words that commonly occur together.
• C. A common error in statistics.
• D. A method of data collection.

Answer: (B)

Collocate is about placing things together or, in language, about words that regularly appear together. When you collocate words, you pair them because they tend to occur side by side in natural usage. The best choice captures both ideas: to place near or together, and to pair words that commonly occur together. For example, in English we often say “make a decision” or “strong tea”—these word pairings are natural collocations. The other options miss the verb sense or refer to unrelated ideas like statistics or data collection.

Collocate is about placing things together or, in language, about words that regularly appear together. When you collocate words, you pair them because they tend to occur side by side in natural usage. The best choice captures both ideas: to place near or together, and to pair words that commonly occur together. For example, in English we often say “make a decision” or “strong tea”—these word pairings are natural collocations. The other options miss the verb sense or refer to unrelated ideas like statistics or data collection.