proliferate
[pruh-lif-uh-reyt]
- 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.
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Origin of proliferate
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
mushroom, escalate, breed, reproduce, snowball, propagate, burgeon, multiply, generate, procreate, engender, expandExamples from the Web for proliferating
Contemporary Examples
Wireless was cheaper than wired communications, and cell phones were proliferating.
But the number of models is proliferating rapidly, and that is helping to bring in new buyers.
This obsession with food choice often leads people to cut out the wrong ones, proliferating the continuation of new diets.
And the New Yorker welcomed The Intercept as part of an encouraging trend of proliferating public-interest journalism startups.
And once again fantasies of a breakthrough are proliferating.
Historical Examples
Imagine that all have a continuous covering of a proliferating epithelium.
Diseases of the Horse's FootHarry Caulton Reeks
This process is the primitive streak, and it is formed, like the sickle, of proliferating epiblast cells.
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1Francis Maitland Balfour
Epithelial cancer of the cervix may assume a proliferating ulcerative type, forming the well-known “cauliflower” excrescence.
They are going to have to move fast, for threats are proliferating fast as well.
The Nation's RiverUnited States Department of the Interior
Young 1-nucleate individual emerged from cyst, destined to grow, proliferating its nuclei to adult form.
proliferate
- to grow or reproduce (new parts, cells, etc) rapidly
- to grow or increase or cause to grow or increase rapidly
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Word Origin
C19: from Medieval Latin prōlifer having offspring, from Latin prōlēs offspring + ferre to bear
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for proliferating
proliferate
v.
1857 as a term in biology; see proliferation. General sense from 1961. Related: Proliferated; proliferating.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
proliferate
(prə-lĭf′ə-rāt′)- To grow or multiply by rapidly producing new tissue, parts, cells, or offspring.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.