disseminator

American  

[dih-sem-uh-ney-ter] / dɪˈsɛm əˌneɪ tər /

noun

1. a person or thing that scatters or spreads something widely, often one that spreads information or ideas.

   Students can help each other learn instead of relying on their teachers as the sole disseminators of knowledge.

   Cattle trade movements can act as efficient disseminators of viruses to areas several hundred kilometers away.

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Etymology

Origin of disseminator

First recorded in 1610–20; disseminat(e) ( def. ) + -or ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

The Times seems to default to the term “misinformation,” which happens when the disseminator actually believes what they tell others.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2022

Now, scientists say they have identified another critical disseminator of the compounds: sea spray.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 20, 2021

The Illinois statute, he said, targets the specific harm it’s trying to remedy: distributing material when the disseminator knows, or should have known, that the person in the image did not consent to its distribution.

From Washington Post • Dec. 26, 2019

It became a prolific disseminator of misleading memes — with consequences that everyone now knows but no one yet fully comprehends.

From Nature • Oct. 1, 2018

Even in the year 1761 a monk was condemned by the Inquisition as a Sebastianist, a believer and a disseminator of false prophecies,—so long did the tradition linger.

From The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology by Hartland, Edwin Sidney