propagandist

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noun

pro·​pa·​gan·​dist ˌprä-pə-ˈgan-dist How to pronounce propagandist (audio)
ˌprō-
plural propagandists
: someone who produces or spreads propaganda : a person who spreads ideas, facts, or allegations deliberately to further a cause or to damage an opposing cause
left-wing/right-wing propagandists
From the mid-1860s on through the 1870s, Jesse had the help of a propagandist, a former Confederate major named John Newman Edwards, who switched to journalism and did all he could to promote Jesse as a kind of rebel knight errant.Larry McMurtry

propagandist

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adjective

variants or propagandistic
: of, relating to, or being propaganda : characterized by ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further a cause or to damage an opposing cause
propagandist rhetoric
propagandistic art
"… I like Jacques-Louis David a lot, too, although he was a propagandist painter. …"Bob Dylan
Accompanying text reported the outstanding political and economic achievements of the Party and detailed propagandistic speeches at length.Linda Jensen
Yes, this film is propagandist in nature, but is at the same time a documentary.Matt Campbell
propagandistically adverb

Examples of propagandist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Many were planted by Axis propagandists, but others appear to have originated with everyday citizens, frequently arising out of their anxieties, suspicions, prejudices or simple misunderstandings. Greg Daugherty, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Mar. 2024 That certainly isn't the case with the ongoing war in Ukraine, as even pro-Kremlin propagandists have been vocal in criticizing the handling of the conflict. Peter Suciu, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2024 That scene — contained in a now-viral video being leveraged even by Russian propagandists — is enveloping Italy’s farthest-right leader since World War II in a gathering political storm. Stefano Pitrelli, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2024 Prigozhin’s personalized response to Wagner’s criminal designation bolstered the White House’s sense that declassification had given the U.S. a new weapon in the running battle against Russia’s propagandists. TIME, 29 Feb. 2024 Last year, Orban’s government blocked E.U. sanctions targeting Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, a key Putin ally and a vocal propagandist for the Russian invasion. Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023 Sean Hannity, the GOP propagandist who has spent years using his powerful media perch to dishonestly attack Biden, delivered the news to his audience in a similarly heavy-handed way. Oliver Darcy, CNN, 22 Feb. 2024 Become a Subscriber Conspiracy theorists and propagandists have always tried to spin current events. Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2024 But with little sign of President Vladimir Putin scaling back his ambitions, the military is ignoring their pleas and propagandists have sought to villainize those speaking out. Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 20 Jan. 2024
Adjective
Russia has relied on a litany of propagandist tactics to garner support and shield the reality of the war from its own population. Caitlin McFall, Fox News, 24 May 2022 Feeding a global market The propagandist war of words has mainly focused on the impact on vulnerable populations in the Global South. Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 July 2023 Anything but apolitical, Reagan-era action flicks like First Blood (1982) and Top Gun (1986) are too frankly propagandist to be allegories. J. Hoberman, The New Republic, 22 June 2023 The effect is chilling, with denunciations strongly encouraged by the state and news of arrests and prosecutions amplified by propagandist commentators on federal television stations and Telegram channels. Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 27 May 2023 Karsten, who is also the department chair of anthropology at UW-Oshkosh, equated this week's invasions to the 1930s build-up to World War II, when Nazi Germany twisted the history of ethnic Germans living in Sudetenland, propagandist campaigns that led to the annexation of Czechoslovakia. Natalie Eilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 24 Feb. 2022 Despite Putin’s efforts to restrict rights, his ability to control the narrative in Russia through propagandist tools has paid off. Caitlin McFall, Fox News, 1 Sep. 2022 To read or view the manipulative domestic coverage of the assault on Ukraine is to walk through a looking glass into a propagandist world of Russian heroes and Ukrainian nationalist villains. Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2022 Instead, the Chinese film industry is taking a more populist and propagandist direction that is less attractive to overseas festivals. Patrick Frater, Variety, 3 Sep. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'propagandist.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

borrowed from French propagandiste, from propagande propaganda + -iste -ist entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1792, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1824, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of propagandist was in 1792

Dictionary Entries Near propagandist

Cite this Entry

“Propagandist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propagandist. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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