proliferate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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proliferates,
present (3rd person singular)
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proliferated,
past participle, past
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proliferating
present participle
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to grow or produce by multiplication of parts, as in budding or cell division, or by procreation.
-
to increase in number or spread rapidly and often excessively.
verb
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to grow or reproduce (new parts, cells, etc) rapidly
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to grow or increase or cause to grow or increase rapidly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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proliferatesimple
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proliferatessimple
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have proliferatedperfect
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has proliferatedperfect
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am proliferatingprogressive
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are proliferatingprogressive
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is proliferatingprogressive
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have been proliferatingperfect progressive
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has been proliferatingperfect progressive
Past
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proliferatedsimple
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had proliferatedperfect
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was proliferatingprogressive
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were proliferatingprogressive
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had been proliferatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of proliferate
First recorded in 1870–75; prolifer(ous) + -ate 1
Explanation
When something proliferates, it's growing, spreading or multiplying really quickly. Bunny rabbits have a habit of proliferating, as do dandelions in untended gardens and funny YouTube videos on the internet. Proliferate was originally a biological term used to describe the growth of cells and producing offspring. It wasn’t until 1961 that we started to use proliferate more generally to talk about everything from the spread of nuclear weapons to the wide growth of Walmart. Other similar words include expand, reproduce, snowball, and spawn.
Vocabulary lists containing proliferate
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 1
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The Vernal Vocabulary of Spring
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Just Mercy
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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 as fried-chicken deals proliferate among its rivals, Saleh said that McDonald’s is now stuck in a “game of chicken,” with “no choice but to play.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
One family is fighting a $736 million gift tax bill on its GRATs while the popular trusts proliferate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
The statewide effort to proliferate Flock cameras comes as backlash is mounting over the surveillance, including from some members of the Legislature, where the $1 fee was approved without opposition.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
But individual ticks are capable of carrying more than one disease simultaneously, and as their territories proliferate, healthcare professionals are warning Americans to pay attention to strange symptoms.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
“He can hear fish. So in our hanabata days, he helped ’em proliferate and he always had the best catch, but he not think beyond those kine fish.
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Some of that message is getting through to younger generations today, as well, as the information about tax strategy proliferates.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
As AI-generated content proliferates, Taylor Swift becomes the latest celebrity to seek trademark protections for her voice and image.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
“The Murder Game” proliferates taxonomies of its own, which often overlap and can become repetitive, especially when the same material is repeated across different chapters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
“With significant near-term opportunities ahead as AEC adoption proliferates across hyperscalers and as new products ramp to production, we expect Credo to beat current consensus estimates.”
From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026
And you see that the eyes are really the man, For the thought of him proliferates This way over to Hindostan, And that way descanting on Yeats.
From Songs and Satires by Edgar Lee Masters
You don’t have to dig deep to see this narrative proliferated in our culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
The overstretched will slide into financial distress, inflicting losses on banks and on the private lenders that have proliferated.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
Labels and the maple leaf from the Canadian flag clearly identifying products' origins have proliferated in stores since last year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
When their daughter became Elizabeth I in 1558, she restored Anne’s title and Anne’s image joined the legitimating Tudor lineup that proliferated in the long galleries of Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Black-and-yellow triangular fallout shelter signs proliferated in public spaces, pointing the way to underground refuge from radiation.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
An out-of-work copywriter on the job hunt himself, he now hunts down the proliferating scams targeting job seekers everywhere.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Still, the view that deteriorating housing affordability has made it more attractive for young Americans to build net worth in assets other than housing is proliferating.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
Stocks and ETFs promising monthly or even weekly income are proliferating, but frequent payouts can obscure volatility and weak total returns.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
Cook also addressed Apple's impending public relaunch of Siri, an AI assistant that the company has seemingly struggled to make competitive in an era of proliferating AI chatbots from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Most of the work done at Langley was of the “compressed-air” persuasion, research conducted in one of the proliferating number of wind tunnels.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
