pullulate

[puhl-yuh-leyt]

verb (used without object)

pullulated, pullulating 

1. to send forth sprouts, buds, etc.; germinate; sprout.

2. to breed, produce, or create rapidly.

3. to increase rapidly; multiply.

4. to exist abundantly; swarm; teem.

5. to be produced as offspring.

pullulate

/ ˈpʌljʊˌleɪt /

verb

1. (of animals, etc) to breed rapidly or abundantly; teem; swarm

2. (of plants or plant parts) to sprout, bud, or germinate

Other Word Forms

• pullulation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pullulate¹

First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin pullulāt(us) (past participle of pullulāre “to sprout, bring forth young”), derivative of pullulus “a sprout, nestling, chick,” diminutive of pullus “foal, young of an animal”; pullet

Word History and Origins

Origin of pullulate¹

C17: from Latin pullulāre to sprout, from pullulus a baby animal, from pullus young animal

Example Sentences

Those of us in my trade should remember it can generate communities and pullulate with kindness and creativity rather than conspiracy and contempt.

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Stretched across panoramic wide-screen, the eye-popping film portrays 1920 Vienna as a pullulating Old World metropolis, its buildings reeling at canted angles, its streets hosting grotesque violence.

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Merriam-Webster, the dictionary that Scripps relies on, says the definition of pullulate includes both “to breed or produce freely” and to “swarm, teem.”

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Willows pullulate with blotchy foliage that recalls her fellow Austrian Gustav Klimt.

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The artist collaborated with Japanese scientists who can translate M.R.I. scans into pictures, and the resultant, restless impressions of brain activity mutate and pullulate from frame to frame.

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