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.
Examples of proliferate in a Sentence
Michael Ashley, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
By now, Rubenstein should be seeing the light at what’s wrong with his new baseball team and that’s his general manager who’s proliferated the organization with analytical baseball neophytes.
—Bill Madden, New York Daily News, 24 May 2025
The look is in stark defiance of a proliferating security mentality in schools to stop active shooters.
—Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 23 May 2025
In 2024, a record number of advertisers were looking to cut their ad spending on X, as the platform is now known, citing concerns that the extreme content that has proliferated there since Musk’s takeover could damage their brands.
—Liam Reilly, CNN Money, 22 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for proliferate
Cite this Entry
“Proliferate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proliferate. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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proliferate
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proliferate
verb
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