disseminate

play

verb dis·sem·i·nate \ di-ˈse-mə-ˌnāt \

Definition of disseminate

disseminated; disseminating

transitive verb

1 :to spread abroad as though sowing seed

disseminate ideas

2 :to disperse throughout

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dissemination

play \-ˌse-mə-ˈnā-shən\ noun

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disseminator

play \-ˈse-mə-ˌnā-tər\ noun

See disseminate defined for English-language learners

See disseminate defined for kids

Examples of disseminate in a Sentence

He told me that as Commanding General [General David Petraeus] he believes he should not only direct battlefield action but also disseminate a few easy-to-grasp concepts about the war's prosecution, which subordinate officers can then interpret on their own. —Steve Coll, New Yorker, 8 Sept. 2008
Jefferson helped found and back a friendly newspaper, the National Gazette, to help disseminate his views. —Walter Kim, Time, 5 July 2004
In this case, the filmmakers did not prevent information from being disseminated. And they have no greater moral obligation than do the highly paid Tom Brokaw or Dan Rather to help a TV network keep down its costs. —Randy Cohen, New York Times Magazine, 7 Oct. 2001
Although possession of virus software and source code is not illegal, many of the existing state and federal computer intrusion and unauthorized access laws already make it illegal to introduce a virus into someone's system intentionally. Robert Morris's conviction … shows how the existing laws might be used to punish those involved with disseminating viruses. —Edward A. Cavazos et al., Cyberspace And The Law, 1994
The Internet allows us to disseminate information faster.
The findings were widely disseminated.

Recent Examples of disseminate from the Web

In part, this narrative will be disseminated via a new feature-length documentary, Dolores, directed by multiple film festival award-winner Peter Bratt and slated for release this September.

— ryan p. smith, Smithsonian, "Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta Offers Advice to a New Generation of Activists," 26 Aug. 2017
Michigan doesn’t disseminate much information from fall camp, but on Friday, the athletic department released some practice footage — with one particular play that made the rounds on the Internet.

— orion sang, Detroit Free Press, "WATCH: Michigan WR Oliver Martin makes circus catch in fall camp," 13 Aug. 2017
The task of putting those reviews into a spreadsheet and disseminating them to other key leaders has fallen, depending on the year, to Johnson or Scott Lynch, the company’s titular chief operating officer.

— matt day, The Seattle Times, "Freewheeling Valve churns out big video-game bucks despite some growing pains," 3 Aug. 2017
I was defeated in a low-turnout Republican primary in which patronage workers disseminated fraudulent campaign literature.

— frank scaturro, National Review, "How a Political Machine Crushes Conservatism — and Democracy," 13 July 2017
Although national security should be the primary concern of the White House, the president and his surrogates insist on degrading the news organizations working to report the story, while disseminating yet another grab-bag of conflicting messages.

— lauren duca, Teen Vogue, "But His Emails! The Donald Trump Jr. Revelations Make It Impossible to Dismiss the Russia Scandal," 12 July 2017
Revenge porn, aka non-consensual pornography, is when someone disseminates sexual photographs or videos of another person without their consent.

— nina bahadur, SELF, "Rob Kardashian's Blac Chyna 'Receipts' Are Actually Just Revenge Porn," 5 July 2017
State elections officials routinely provide Alaska's public voter data to political party operatives, and the information is widely disseminated.

— nathaniel herz, Alaska Dispatch News, "Alaska elections director says Trump commission will get some voter data — but not if it’s private," 1 July 2017
The alert was further disseminated by state health officials.

— meredith cohn, baltimoresun.com, "Doctor's license suspended after state board said he over prescribed opioids," 28 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'disseminate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Disseminating Information on disseminate

While the object of the verb disseminate may be something tangible, such as an infectious agent, nowadays the thing most often disseminated, or "spread abroad as though sowing seed," is information. Where does this metaphorical verb come from? In Latin, the dis- prefix signifies separation or dispersal, while the -sem- element springs from semen "seed." The same Latin noun is found in a number of other English words with figurative meanings: seminary (which now is a training facility for priests, but initially was a place where seeds were raised to plants), seminal (meaning "containing the seeds of later development"), and yes, the word semen.