Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To grow or multiply by rapidly producing new tissue, parts, cells, or offspring.
- intransitive verb To increase or spread at a rapid rate.
- intransitive verb To cause to grow or increase rapidly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To reproduce; grow by multiplication of elementary parts.
- Specifically, in zoology, to generate or reproduce by the act of proliferation; bear generative persons or zoöids, as distinguished from nutritive persons, as is the usual process in the hydroid polyps.
- To bear; form by reproduction.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb (Biol.) To produce or form cells; especially, to produce cells rapidly.
- transitive verb (Zoöl.) To produce zooids by budding.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To increase in number or spread rapidly.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb grow rapidly
- verb cause to grow or increase rapidly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word proliferate.
Examples
-
As titles for the entitled proliferate, we are in danger of becoming a nation of all chiefs and no Indians.
Stephanie Pierson and Barbara Harrison: Job Titles: What to Do When No One Has a Clue 2009
-
And as these labels proliferate to envelop just about every piece of unconventional childhood behavior, our view of what is normal is shrinking.
You’re a Better Parent Than You Think! Raymond N. Guarendi 1985
-
And as these labels proliferate to envelop just about every piece of unconventional childhood behavior, our view of what is normal is shrinking.
You’re a Better Parent Than You Think! Raymond N. Guarendi 1985
-
Momentum trades-trades, not investments- can gather momentum on the downside in a steeper run if the margin calls proliferate.
Forbes.com: News Robert Lenzner 2011
-
"As the definition quality of digital cameras increases, playback devices such as proliferate, and the use of the Internet for downloading music and video continues to grow, more files accumulate in the home," said Parks Vice President Kurt Scherf.
-
"As the definition quality of digital cameras increases, playback devices such as proliferate, and the use of the Internet for downloading music and video continues to grow, more files accumulate in the home," said Parks Vice President Kurt Scherf.
-
Nuclear weapons were reduced, but not abolished, and they continued to proliferate to new countries.
The Return Daniel Treisman 2011
-
And the possibilities in your future will proliferate alongside your prosperity.
Lighten Up Peter Walsh 2011
-
At night he hung out in the bars that proliferate throughout Dubai, the biggest and showiest of the emirates and a short drive from his house in Ajman.
Fallout Catherine Collins 2011
-
We went up to that high poverty neighborhood, where crime scene tapes proliferate and unemployed men linger on street corners.
John Merrow: A Paradox? Or Just a Contradiction? John Merrow 2011
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.