promulgate
Americanverb (used with object)
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promulgates,
present (3rd person singular)
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promulgated,
past participle, past
-
promulgating
present participle
verb
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to put into effect (a law, decree, etc), esp by formal proclamation
-
to announce or declare officially
-
to make widespread
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
promulgatesimple
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promulgatessimple
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have promulgatedperfect
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has promulgatedperfect
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am promulgatingprogressive
-
are promulgatingprogressive
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is promulgatingprogressive
-
have been promulgatingperfect progressive
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has been promulgatingperfect progressive
Past
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promulgatedsimple
-
had promulgatedperfect
-
was promulgatingprogressive
-
were promulgatingprogressive
-
had been promulgatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of promulgate
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin prōmulgātus, past participle of prōmulgāre “to make known, promulgate”; see promulge, -ate 1
Explanation
To promulgate is to officially put a law into effect. Your state may announce a plan to promulgate a new traffic law on January 1st. Laws aren't the only things you can promulgate. The word promulgate comes from the Latin word promulgatus, meaning "make publicly known." Someone can promulgate values, belief systems, and philosophies — it just means they're promoted or made public. For example, you might write an article to promulgate the benefits of eating only organic foods.
Vocabulary lists containing promulgate
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Othello
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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:
On Monday, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said Macron "has decided to promulgate the law" containing the ban on phones, despite the Constitutional Council striking down its flagship provision.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
Ms. Wentz is at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, whose “core mission” is to “develop and promulgate legal techniques to combat the climate crisis and advance climate justice.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
But Chambers hasn’t given up his opposition — and his agreement to liquidate his stake in Cox has given him more resources than ever to promulgate it.
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2024
The Sisters have come a long way, but never strayed from their mission: to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2023
He couldn’t easily promulgate it, though, because he had a tragic flaw: a severe speech impediment, perhaps a stutter.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
According to the disclosures, the FBI usually would immediately disseminate information and provide training when the federal judiciary promulgates new legal guidance or directives.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 10, 2023
Race, a keen source of conflict in the stories a society promulgates about itself, raises these stakes astronomically.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2021
James taught that the value of a practice or policy doesn’t depend on the authority or movement that promulgates it, nor on the philosophical framework from which it derives.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 19, 2020
Mr. Miller now occupies a large West Wing office and has influence on virtually every element of immigration policy, from the words the president uses to the regulations he promulgates.
From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2019
With thunder and fire, leading his starry hosts thro’ the waste wilderness, he promulgates his ten commands, glancing his beamy eyelids over the deep in dark dismay; 19.
From William Blake A Critical Essay by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Nearly 150 members of Congress — including more than a dozen Republicans — wrote a letter the day after the rule was promulgated expressing “disappointment” over the exclusion of post-baccalaureate nursing degrees.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
Officials this month promulgated a series of economic plans centered on a GDP growth target of 4.5% to 5%, the lowest since 1991.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
These interventions were all functions of the Monroe Doctrine, first promulgated by President James Monroe in 1823.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2026
The director for decades, J. Edgar Hoover, had promulgated enormous abuses of the bureau.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025
The furniture of the room was the furniture of a by-gone day, when art had not been promulgated, and nobody thought of considering beauty as in any sense an important factor of one's happiness.
From The Tree of Knowledge A Novel by Mrs. Baillie Reynolds
It also claimed Lara did not follow regulatory protocol in promulgating the new policy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
When reminiscing about films or promulgating his ideas on technique, Kurosawa comes across as approachable and marvelously unassuming.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
All state matters were rigorously scrutinized by Louis, and he spent hours planning troop movements, overseeing the building of roads and canals, and promulgating legal codes for France’s colonies.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
By promulgating knowledge of how white supremacy works, the theory goes, racial justice can be advanced.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 27, 2022
Her followers now increased rapidly, and chapels were opened for promulgating her doctrines.
From The Religious Life of London by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie
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.
