multiply
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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multiplies,
present (3rd person singular)
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multiplied,
past participle, past
-
multiplying
present participle
-
to make many or manifold; increase the number, quantity, etc., of.
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Arithmetic. to find the product of by multiplication.
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to breed (animals).
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to propagate (plants).
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to increase by procreation.
verb (used without object)
-
multiplies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
multiplied,
past participle, past
-
multiplying
present participle
-
to grow in number, quantity, etc.; increase.
- Synonyms:
- mushroom, grow, proliferate
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Arithmetic. to perform the process of multiplication.
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to increase in number by procreation or natural generation.
adverb
verb
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to increase or cause to increase in number, quantity, or degree
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(tr) to combine (two numbers or quantities) by multiplication
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(intr) to increase in number by reproduction
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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multipliableadjective
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self-multipliedadjective
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self-multiplyingadjective
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unmultipliedadjective
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unmultiplyingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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multiplysimple
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multipliessimple
-
have multipliedperfect
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has multipliedperfect
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am multiplyingprogressive
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are multiplyingprogressive
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is multiplyingprogressive
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have been multiplyingperfect progressive
-
has been multiplyingperfect progressive
Past
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multipliedsimple
-
had multipliedperfect
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was multiplyingprogressive
-
were multiplyingprogressive
-
had been multiplyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of multiply1
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English multiplien, from Old French multiplier, from Latin multiplicāre; see multi-, ply 2
Origin of multiply2
Explanation
When you multiply two numbers, you increase the first by the same number that's specified by the second. In other words, when you multiply two by three, you add together three twos. When you're doing simple math problems, you can multiply by memorizing lists of times tables — or you can add one number as many times as the second number: four times two is the same as two fours, or eight. Another way to multiply is simply to increase or expand greatly: "If the diner starts serving homemade pie, their profits will multiply." The Latin root is multiplicare, "to increase," from multiplex, "having many folds."
Vocabulary lists containing multiply
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
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Number and Operations: Fractions
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Operations and Algebraic Thinking
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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:
The beach grows brighter as fires multiply from Malvarrosa down toward the port.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Census Bureau, and is expected to multiply fourfold over the next 30 years.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Boeing's MQ-28 Ghost Bat is an uncrewed aircraft, developed with the Royal Australian Air Force, to fly alongside crewed fighter jets carrying out electronic warfare and surveillance and to help multiply forces.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
When the gene is missing, cancer cells multiply rapidly and become resistant to many targeted therapies.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 4, 2026
Unfortunately, as Zambardino noted, “the errors multiply each other and can escalate rapidly to an unacceptable magnitude.”
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The U.S. skilled workforce is aging fast, while demand for workers in the trades multiplies quickly because of surging data center demand and investment in advanced manufacturing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Datadog, down 25%, and Snowflake, down 41%, are in this group, too, although they’re younger companies trading at high multiplies of earnings.
From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026
Each reuse multiplies the value of the original dataset, ensuring that no discovery is wasted, every contribution can spark the next breakthrough, and researchers gain recognition for their work.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2025
Hunt is home to just over 1,300 people, but when summer comes around, the small city’s population multiplies because of young campers.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2025
When a hot virus multiplies in a host, it can saturate the body with virus particles, from the brain to the skin.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Yet these settings solve the hardest problem in friendship formation: proximity multiplied by repetition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
When these creatine-deficient dendritic cells were grown alongside T cells in laboratory experiments, the T cells multiplied less and produced fewer signaling molecules needed to mount an effective anti-cancer response.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
The couple, who announced their engagement in August last year, have been seen in various spots around New York of late, and clues have multiplied that the Garden could be their venue of choice.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
Alphabet’s Gemini wasn’t, but it multiplied its bets anyway, tending to lose more than half its bankroll.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
With eight siblings, it had been turbulent growing up, and when she converted to Islam, the battles and misunderstandings multiplied.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Perhaps that is why eclipse chasers keep multiplying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Swonk argued that the "hawks" at the Fed -- those policymakers who consider it appropriate to raise interest rates to combat high prices -- were multiplying.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
“The attack surface is exploding. Every ungoverned asset and identity is multiplying the blast radius of AI exponentially,” McDermott told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Down and down they went, their buffer all but removed, their obsession about results elsewhere in the coming days multiplying as they went.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
It was not multiplying or doing anything, since the monkey’s cells were dead.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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.
