propagate

verb

prop·a·gate ˈprä-pə-ˌgāt

propagated; propagating

Synonyms of propagate next

transitive verb

: to cause to continue or increase by sexual or asexual reproduction

: to pass along to offspring

: to cause to spread out and affect a greater number or greater area : extend

: to foster growing knowledge of, familiarity with, or acceptance of (something, such as an idea or belief) : publicize

: to transmit (something, such as sound or light) through a medium

intransitive verb

: to multiply sexually or asexually

: increase, extend

: to travel through space or a material

—used of wave energy (such as light, sound, or radio waves)

propagative

ˈprä-pə-ˌgā-tiv

adjective

propagator

ˈprä-pə-ˌgā-tər

noun

Did you know?

The origins of propagate are firmly rooted in the field of horticulture. The word is a 16th century Latin borrowing, ultimately from the verb propagare, which means "to set (onto a plant) a small shoot or twig cut for planting or grafting." The word's meaning quickly extended from the realm of the farm and field to less material kinds of reproduction, such as the spreading of ideas and beliefs. The similarity between propagate and propaganda is not coincidental; that word also comes to us from propagare, although it took a more circuitous route.

Example Sentences

We are discovering new ways to propagate plants without seeds. He propagated the apple tree by grafting. The plants failed to propagate.

Recent Examples on the Web As the velocity of light is dependent on wavelength, the red component of the light propagates faster than the blue within the fiber. —

IEEE Spectrum, 10 May 2023 That show propagated a muscularly humanist, blandly nondenominational conception of the medium, one visible in Webb’s African work. —

Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 3 May 2023 Once, in my hometown, one of these men printed a meme with rumours against me and my family and propagated it in the public square and in the local market. —

Adie Vanessa Offiong, CNN, 3 May 2023 Those waves also leak out into space, a fingerprint of our presence propagating through the cosmos. —

Briley Lewis, Popular Science, 25 Apr. 2023 With an open directory approach, changes within your core management system can be propagated through to applications and machines. —

Rajat Bhargava, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023 Follow these steps to propagate your redbud tree: Collect brown, dry pods in the fall and remove the seeds. —

Steve Bender, Southern Living, 23 Jan. 2023 Ads showing cities in disrepair and violence are easy to produce and propagate. —

Arun Shastri, Forbes, 6 May 2023 In 2020, Timnit Gebru, an AI researcher, was fired after warning of large language models' ability to propagate racist, sexist, and otherwise harmful rhetoric and spread misinformation. —

Emily Dreibelbis, PCMAG, 1 May 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'propagate.' 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

Latin propagatus, past participle of propagare to set slips, propagate, from propages slip, offspring, from pro- before + pangere to fasten — more at pro-, pact

First Known Use

1535, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of propagate was in 1535

See more words from the same year