proliferate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to grow or produce by multiplication of parts, as in budding or cell division, or by procreation.
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to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.
verb
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to grow or reproduce (new parts, cells, etc) rapidly
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to grow or increase or cause to grow or increase rapidly
Other Word Forms
- proliferative adjective
Etymology
Origin of proliferate
First recorded in 1870–75; prolifer(ous) + -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But concerns about wagers placed on inside information have proliferated.
From BBC
But as technology evolved and proliferated, privacy laws repeatedly fell short in protecting California’s students — at the same time that the federal government has tried to collect increasing amounts of personal information, Addis said.
From Los Angeles Times
“The Murder Game” proliferates taxonomies of its own, which often overlap and can become repetitive, especially when the same material is repeated across different chapters.
In the last few days, videos made using the latest version of the app Seedance have proliferated online.
From BBC
While that litigation rages, Core is also competing with a new generation of private members clubs that have proliferated since the Covid pandemic.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
