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simulate

/ˈsɪmjəleɪt//ˈsɪmjʊleɪt/·verb
to imitate the behaviour of a real process or system, often to study or rehearse it
Fig. 1 — A flight-simulator station is bolted to the floor of a room, going precisely nowhere.
01Definition

To simulate is to build a working imitation — a model that behaves like the real thing so we can watch, test, or rehearse without the real thing's cost or danger. Pilots simulate emergencies in a grounded cockpit; computers simulate climates, crashes, and crowds. From the Latin simulare, 'to make like', it can also mean to fake a feeling ('she simulated surprise'), but in academic use it almost always means to run a faithful model of how something would actually behave.

02In use
  • iEngineers built a model to simulate how the bridge would sway in high winds, letting them anticipate failures before a single beam was raised.
  • iiThe software can simulate an epidemic to test each hypothesis about how it might spread.
  • iiiTrainees simulate engine failures so often that the real thing comes to feel almost routine.
03Collocations
  • simulate conditions
  • simulate an emergency
  • a computer simulates
  • simulate real-world behaviour
  • a simulated environment

Family simulation (noun) · simulator (noun) · simulated (adjective)

04Relations

=imitate, replicate, model, mimic, reproduce

≠actualize, realize

06TOEFL & IELTS

Central to TOEFL science lectures, where simulations of natural processes (climate, fluid flow, population growth) are common, and to IELTS technology topics. Flag the spelling-and-sound trap: simulate (model) versus stimulate (excite or encourage) — a frequent error. The noun simulation is just as exam-useful as the verb.

07Asked
What is the difference between simulate and stimulate?
They sound close and mean opposite kinds of thing. To simulate is to imitate — build a working model of something, as a flight simulator simulates a flight. To stimulate is to excite or spur into activity — coffee stimulates the brain, subsidies stimulate the economy. The hook: simulate makes something LIKE the real thing; stimulate makes something more ACTIVE. Swapping them, a very common slip, reverses your meaning entirely.
What is the difference between simulate and emulate?
Both copy, at different depths. To simulate is to model behaviour so you can study or rehearse it — the simulation imitates the real thing without being it. To emulate is to reproduce a thing's function well enough to match or replace it, or, of people, to strive to equal a rival. A simulator practises flying; an emulator actually runs the old software. Simulate to understand; emulate to match.
What does simulation mean?
A running model that behaves like a real process — the noun of simulate, and a workhorse of modern science: climate simulations, crash simulations, epidemic simulations. It lets researchers test what would happen without paying what it would cost. The scene above is a simulation exactly: a flight-sim bolted to the floor, throwing up every genuine reading of a flight while never leaving the ground.
Can 'simulate' mean to fake a feeling?
Yes — the older sense is to feign: she simulated surprise, he simulated a limp. Here the imitation is meant to deceive rather than to study, and it shades toward pretending. Academic English almost always means the neutral 'run a faithful model' sense, so context sorts them: a computer that simulates weather is modelling; a witness who simulates grief is acting.