perpetuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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perpetuates,
present (3rd person singular)
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perpetuated,
past participle, past
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perpetuating
present participle
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to enable or allow the continuation of into the future; keep alive (used most often in reference to something considered harmful or false): Vines obscured a plaque intended to perpetuate her memory.
Social media played a significant role in perpetuating political divisions.
Vines obscured a plaque intended to perpetuate her memory.
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to preserve from extinction or oblivion: perpetuate the species.
to perpetuate one's name;
perpetuate the species.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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perpetuancenoun
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perpetuationnoun
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perpetuatornoun
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perpetuableadjective
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unperpetuableadjective
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unperpetuatingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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perpetuatesimple
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perpetuatessimple
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have perpetuatedperfect
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has perpetuatedperfect
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am perpetuatingprogressive
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are perpetuatingprogressive
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is perpetuatingprogressive
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have been perpetuatingperfect progressive
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has been perpetuatingperfect progressive
Past
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perpetuatedsimple
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had perpetuatedperfect
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was perpetuatingprogressive
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were perpetuatingprogressive
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had been perpetuatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perpetuate
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin perpetuātus (past participle of perpetuāre, derivative of perpetuus “uninterrupted”); see perpetual, -ate 1
Explanation
Some things should last forever and others should not be perpetuated at all. Things that should NOT be perpetuated? Ugly rumors, arms races, and your Aunt Martha's annual fruit cake. Be careful not to confuse perpetuate with perpetrate. Although they differ in spelling by only one letter, they differ greatly in meaning. If you perpetuate something, you help it last. Perpetrate, on the other hand, means to commit a criminal act. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to perpetuate the acts of perpetrators!
Vocabulary lists containing perpetuate
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Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865)
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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:
But Grande does perpetuate a silence, complacency, and enabling by painting genuine concern as gossipy chatter.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
AI applications pose unaddressed privacy risks and perpetuate healthcare bias when patients upload medical data to chatbots, potentially exposing personal information to insurance decisions while reflecting cultural disparities embedded in training data.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
“If this data has been absconded or downloaded, you could perpetuate fraud against every single government system in existence much more easily than at any time in our history.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 4, 2026
Nonetheless, they have plans to cut through the fog to perpetuate expansion and boost returns.
From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026
“You’re helping perpetuate this fraud,” he told Lori.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Advocates and researchers say this practice perpetuates negative stereotypes and harms the lives and business of real people.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
“It perpetuates the problem. It creates a false equality, by eliminating any opportunity to excel.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
“I do love being at home because a lot of times that’s what perpetuates it, the home crowd, the energy,” said Roberts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
The Sound of Music fuses fiction and nonfiction, perpetuates myths, and shapes viewers’ sense of the past for better or worse, giving us beloved scenes and songs in the process.
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2025
It perpetuates the myth that the primary function of the system is to keep our streets safe and our homes secure by rooting out dangerous criminals and punishing them.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Being adopted by a white family, only to be shunned by the Native community, perpetuated his lifelong feeling of being an outsider.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
A well-meaning attempt to mitigate suffering by collective effort instead perpetuated it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
There is a bizarre universe built around the prestige and untouchability of the court that is first and foremost perpetuated by the people on the court.
From Slate ● May 13, 2026
Siddiq said a meeting "might also help clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Dhaka".
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2025
The error will be perpetuated for decades in books and even a movie.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
"Platforms and products disproportionately fail us in basic safety, data privacy, transparency, and accuracy -- including perpetuating factually incorrect information about our lives."
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Instead, Hyderabad itself was abolished, in 1948, by the postcolonial Republic of India—and with it all dreams of perpetuating the 1,300-year-old caliphal tradition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
People also need to be more willing to discuss race and have "hard conversations" with those perpetuating "deeply problematic" rhetoric as people do not fear any social repercussions, Strong added.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026
Although someone perpetuating a romance scam can go after any age group, often older individuals who have built up significant retirement accounts and may be less familiar with AI and deepfake technology are targeted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025
The intensity with which the family undertook the defense had a self- perpetuating and escalating force: Reggie denied texting, the family backed him up, and Reggie, never someone to let others down, dug in deeper.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
