disseminate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disseminates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disseminated,
past participle, past
-
disseminating
present participle
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
-
have disseminatedperfect
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has disseminatedperfect
-
am disseminatingprogressive
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are disseminatingprogressive
-
is disseminatingprogressive
-
have been disseminatingperfect progressive
-
has been disseminatingperfect progressive
Past
-
disseminatedsimple
-
had disseminatedperfect
-
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:
"We urge the public not to disseminate related information, to reject cyberbullying, and to work together to create a good environment for the growth of minors," reads an official statement.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 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
He was too modest to add that if you don’t have good people to collect and disseminate it, you can’t have the good data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
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
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
"As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences."
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2025
The brain puppeteers the hormone system, which disseminates chemical signals through the bloodstream, and those chemicals can spark a wide variety of biological responses.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2023
These are the things which theatrical gossip, printed and oral, most industriously disseminates.
From Play-Making A Manual of Craftsmanship by William Archer
“No evidence was discovered showing the photograph was disseminated outside official channels or used for any personal or non-official purpose.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
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 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
Just as certain dishes—peach melba, prawn cocktail—have managed to spread across continents and survive over time, so some scientific doctrines are successfully disseminated, while others remain firmly tied to their time and place of origin.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
However, it took months to gather the evidence necessary to identify and prosecute the person allegedly responsible for disseminating it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
In exceptional cases, disseminating footage that’s hard to stomach serves a noble objective.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
A U.A.E. official said disseminating inaccurate information can incite panic and cost lives in times of crisis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
An Egyptian court denied on Thursday the appeal of a prominent economist seeking to overturn his five-year prison sentence for disseminating "fake news", according to one of his lawyers.
From Barron's ● Dec. 25, 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.
