proliferate
verb
Did you know?
Proliferate is a back-formation of proliferation. That means that proliferation came first (we borrowed it from French in the 1700s), and was later shortened to form the verb. Proliferation originally referred to the botanical phenomenon of some plants having buds, flowers, or other parts that are adventitious—that is, that arise or occur sporadically or in other than the usual location (e.g. pitch pines’ ability to sprout new trees directly from their stumps after a fire). With advances in the study of biology in the 1800s, proliferation came to be used to refer to the rapid and repeated production of cells by division. That sense in turn begat the verb proliferate, which eventually came to be used when anything—whether living (such as yeast) or nonliving (such as data)—quickly increases or multiplies.
Synonyms
Examples of proliferate in a Sentence
Chad De Guzman, TIME, 8 Aug. 2024
Fact check: Atlanta tornado was at night, video shows daytime twisters
After the Southport attack, anti-immigration and anti-Islam riots broke out in the U.K. as misinformation about the suspect's identity proliferated.
—Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY, 7 Aug. 2024
The investigation found that despite the early warnings to Kaegi’s office, the issue proliferated amid staffing cuts, the pandemic, technological growing pains and organizational lapses.
—Cam Rodriguez, Chicago Tribune, 4 Aug. 2024
In June, false claims that the Houthis had struck or even sunk the U.S.S. Eisenhower proliferated on social media, amplified by pro-Russian and Chinese accounts.
—Alexandra Stark, Foreign Affairs, 2 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for proliferate 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'proliferate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near proliferate
Cite this Entry
“Proliferate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proliferate. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
proliferate
verb
Medical Definition
proliferate
verb
Share