disseminate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Usage
What does disseminate mean? To disseminate is to distribute, spread, broadcast, or disperse widely. The act or process of disseminating is dissemination. The word is especially used in reference to the distribution of information, or things that contain information, like files and documents. It is also associated with the official release of such information by organizations, such as a company that disseminates a press release or a government agency that disseminates information to the public. Example: Our chief media officer is responsible for disseminating press releases to various outlets.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disseminatesimple
-
disseminatessimple
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have disseminatedperfect
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has disseminatedperfect
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am disseminatingprogressive
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are disseminatingprogressive
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is disseminatingprogressive
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have been disseminatingperfect progressive
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has been disseminatingperfect progressive
Past
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disseminatedsimple
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had disseminatedperfect
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was disseminatingprogressive
-
were disseminatingprogressive
-
had been disseminatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disseminate
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin dissēminātus (past participle of dissēmināre; dis- dis- 1 + sēmināre “to sow”), equivalent to dis- + sēmin- (stem of sēmen “seed”) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
Disseminate means to spread information, knowledge, opinions widely. Semin- derives from the Latin word for seed; the idea with disseminate is that information travels like seeds sown by a farmer. Think about a teacher distributing a hand out at the beginning of a class. The dis- of disseminate and distribute come from the same Latin prefix which means "apart, in a different direction." But unlike papers distributed in class, information, once spread around in all directions, cannot be pulled back in. Think about false rumors or political smear campaigns and you'll understand that dissemination is usually a one-way process.
Vocabulary lists containing disseminate
Hidden Figures
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Grade 11, List 5
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1984
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He shared his knowledge with the public by using his Pennsylvania Gazette, bought with a partner in 1729, to disseminate medical advice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
On Friday, Nestle refuted the accusations made by the watchdog, saying it reserved the right to respond in court "if Foodwatch continues to disseminate misleading information".
From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026
“Neither party shall post, upload or disseminate on the internet or any social media platforms, photographs, images, and or/information regarding the Minor Child,” court documents say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
And it formed a coalition with Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, PragerU and dozens of other conservative groups to disseminate patriotic programming.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2025
We are rightly appalled by the genetic effects of radiation; how then, can we be indifferent to the same effect in chemicals that we disseminate widely in our environment?
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Much of that money has been routed through a nonprofit judicial advocacy group Leo founded — now called The 85 Fund — which both receives and disseminates Leo’s funding.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2026
The letter said that project was aimed at assessing how the Secret Service identifies, receives, disseminates and operationalizes intelligence concerning threats to the officials it protects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
“If a city in a country wants to promote its tourism, its culture, that’s a very different thing from a paid advertisement that disseminates discriminatory messages,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2025
The organization referenced by Mr. Jacobs is the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, or CAFT, a group that selects targets and disseminates information and resources to anti-fur activists on the ground.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
It is interesting to find Death also called a sower, who disseminates weeds among men: "Dô der Tôt sînen Sâmen under si gesœte."
From The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala by Baerlein, Henry
The church denies that the aim of the lawsuit is to silence a popular maverick whose content is widely disseminated by critics of Mormonism.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
“The preliminary cause of death was determined to be disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and snake envenomation from snake bites,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
The unprecedented quantity and detail of battlefield data requires changes to how intelligence is collected, analyzed and disseminated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
"Secondly, untrue facts are being disseminated on the basis of a one-sided account," it continued.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
But, thanks to these translations and the printing press, Galen’s work was disseminated more widely than ever before over the next ten years or so.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
The virus has been "rampant and silently disseminating for a few weeks already", she said.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
They called the medical groups’ request to block the vaccine panel from meeting publicly, and the HHS from disseminating information about immunization recommendations, “an extraordinarily unusual advice-banning” proposal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
“What I can say with absolute certainty is that the DOJ did a terrible job when they were disseminating these files,” Hersh said.
From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2026
Our job is to determine whether someone was engaged in journalism and whether their work involved gathering and disseminating news and information.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2025
They might “build on public panic to further destabilize the system by disseminating rumors” and therefore “increase media coverage” and “stress the public health system.”
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
