proliferated

verb

past tense of proliferate
as in increased
to become greater in extent, volume, amount, or number rumors about the incident proliferated on the Internet

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of proliferated And as cannabis has proliferated, cannabis use disorder has risen sharply, especially among those who use it daily or weekly. — Sarah Owermohle, CNN Money, 3 Nov. 2026 According to the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, harmful algae blooms have proliferated along the California coast for the last few decades due to warming ocean temperatures and pollution. — Anne Ewbank, Sacbee.com, 2 Nov. 2026 Now the world needs more gas than ever, and methane emissions abatement measures, from better pumps to satellite monitoring, have proliferated. — Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 29 Oct. 2026 And yet, beneath the radar, music-making devices have proliferated. — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2026 Fertility startups have proliferated and expanded across the country, undergirded by colossal private equity and venture capital investments seeking returns. — Pooja Yerramilli, STAT, 28 Oct. 2026 After a wave of restaurant closures struck West Midtown in late 2024 and early 2025, theories on the state of the area’s restaurant scene proliferated. — Olivia Wakim, AJC.com, 25 Oct. 2026 Without the ecological check of microbial parasites, humans proliferated. — Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026 Chmerkovskiy quickly took down the offending TikTok, but not before fan screenshots proliferated and Inaba got wind of it. — Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 18 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for proliferated
  1. increased
  2. swelled
  3. accelerated
  4. expanded
  5. rose
  6. multiplied
Verb
  • The county also increased its general millage rate for fiscal year 2025-2026.
    — Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Nov. 2026
  • Rents have increased in this rural area, where the median income is around $50,000 a year.
    — Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of increased
Verb
  • Pride quickly swelled beyond Casalecchio, which is near Bologna.
    — Chris Livesay, CBS News, 2 Nov. 2026
  • The number of titles receiving airplay swelled from seven to 18, while stations playing at least one song of his increased from 72 to 94.
    — Russ Penuell, Billboard, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of swelled
Verb
  • The feud accelerated over the closing weeks of the campaign when Cenk Uygur’s Rebellion PAC began running the anti-Israel ad that would eventually convince Stevens to endorse Rogers.
    — Nicholas Wu, semafor.com, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Worry among voters about whether their ballots will be counted has accelerated, according to organizers; in a recent AP-NORC poll, just under half of American voters expressed confidence that midterm votes will be counted accurately.
    — Justine McDaniel, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of accelerated
Verb
  • In recent weeks, however, Republicans essentially ceded the race as the battleground map expanded to places like Texas.
    — Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Connecticut has expanded the opportunities for early voting for college students this election cycle, with polling locations at each of the four state universities in addition to UConn’s Storrs campus and Fairfield University.
    — Katie Servas, Hartford Courant, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of expanded
Verb
  • Industrial equipment investment rose nearly 25%, which while not a straight AI trade, does partially reflect spending on data centers.
    — Eric Rosenbaum, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2026
  • Federal Reserve researchers found that manufacturers whose input costs rose most under the 2018 tariffs employed 2% fewer workers than those least affected.
    — Stuart Loren, Chicago Tribune, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of rose
Verb
  • The group’s apps have more than 40 million monthly active users combined and have passed 300 million installs, and EloElo said its revenue multiplied over the past year.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 4 Nov. 2026
  • The pack likely started as a small group, dumped by their owners, that grew and multiplied when people in the area started feeding them, the county said.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of multiplied

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proliferate
proliferated
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Cite this Entry

“Proliferated.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/proliferated. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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