ramify

[ram-uh-fahy]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ramify ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with or without object), ram·i·fied, ram·i·fy·ing.

to divide or spread out into branches or branchlike parts; extend into subdivisions.

Origin of ramify

1535–45; < Middle French ramifier < Medieval Latin rāmificāre, equivalent to Latin rām(us) branch (see ramus) + -ificāre -ify

Related formsmul·ti·ram·i·fied, adjectiveun·ram·i·fied, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for ramify

fork, proliferate, develop, divide, extend, separate, bifurcate, subdivide, enlarge, diverge, increase, spread, part, multiply, diversify, grow, expand

Examples from the Web for ramify

Contemporary Examples of ramify

These are serious sums of money that ramify through every economic calculation.
David's Book Club: The Age of Austerity
David Frum
February 21, 2012

Historical Examples of ramify

Philip knew these relatives well: they ramify, if need be, all over the peninsula.
Where Angels Fear to Tread
E. M. Forster
The bazaars form the heart of the town, and ramify in various directions.
Tent Work in Palestine
Claude Reignier Conder
It is also vascular and the veins which ramify it have a plexiform or net-work like arrangement.
The Mystery of Space
Robert T. Browne
The nature of the thing is to ramify beyond human calculation.
The Cloister and the Hearth
Charles Reade
When I'd got my local ground perfectly covered, I'd begin to ramify.
A Modern Instance
William Dean Howells

British Dictionary definitions for ramify

ramify

verb -fies, -fying or -fied

to divide into branches or branchlike parts

(intr) to develop complicating consequences; become complex

Word Origin for ramify

C16: from French ramifier, from Latin rāmus branch + facere to make

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ramify

early 15c., "branch out," from Middle French ramifier (early 14c.), from Medieval Latin ramificare "to form branches," from Latin ramus "branch" (see ramus) + root of facere "to make" (see factitious). Related: Ramified; ramifying.

ramify in Medicine

ramify

[răm′ə-fī′]

v.

To branch.