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
-
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 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
The late economist Mancur Olson described the danger that, in democracies, interest groups proliferate that cause the government to calcify until it is unable to act.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Defense applications in space will also proliferate in the coming years.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
There’s been general concern about whether traditional software vendors will be able to hold their ground as artificial-intelligence tools proliferate.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026
Now we are wondering whether nuclear weapons will proliferate around the world by the same often-violent process, from the eight countries that presently possess them.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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
“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
This isn’t exactly far from the kind of inextricability between an actor and their character that typically proliferates early Oscar campaigns.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
The implanted epidermis proliferates and forms a small cyst.
From Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Alexis Thomson
After a bigger splash at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, Mold-A-Ramas proliferated across the U.S., popping up in zoos, museums and anywhere tourists might exchange a coin for a toy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
These privately owned e-scooters are illegal to ride on public roads across the UK, but they've proliferated regardless.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Once live music, theater and sports returned, vaccines proliferated and public health restrictions eased, people rushed back to be entertained in big crowds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Mineral extraction projects looking for copper, lithium and more have proliferated across the Argentine Andes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
Evolution occurred in scientific progress as it happened in nature: a positive trait was passed along, then proliferated; obsolete characteristics withered away, and the technology and the organization evolved into something new.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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
Tiny new Christian schools, often operating in Sunday school spaces in churches, are proliferating.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
With powerful AI models that can hack into systems rapidly proliferating, this, too, could be a growth opportunity for the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
AI-generated influencers, virtual personalities and digital performers are already proliferating online, while entertainment companies continue to experiment with AI-created characters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 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.
