ramify
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to divide into branches or branchlike parts
-
(intr) to develop complicating consequences; become complex
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of ramify
1535–45; < Middle French ramifier < Medieval Latin rāmificāre, equivalent to Latin rām ( us ) branch ( see ramus) + -ificāre -ify
Explanation
The verb ramify describes something that branches off or spreads, like the new subway lines that ramify across your city and reach even the neighborhoods farthest from the center. Ramify came into English through French, but it traces all the way back to the Latin word ramus, meaning "branch." It can describe things that literally branch out in segments, or it can be used figuratively to describe things that spread, like the effects of a new policy that ramify through your school. Ramify might seem like a strange word, but you probably know the related word ramification, a consequence that stems — or branches — from some other action.
Vocabulary lists containing ramify
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Notes of a Native Son
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On the Origin of Species
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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.
But in complex technological systems, small mistakes may rapidly ramify and compound into large problems.
From Scientific American • Sep. 30, 2021
Perhaps surprisingly, the effects of the growth of the penal state ramify well beyond city streets, all the way, for instance, to the Gulf of Mexico.
From Washington Post • Jan. 8, 2016
"Everything that could fork, ramify, coil, flutter, fold back or thread through itself," wrote Leigh Fermor of the Landsknechts, "suddenly sprang to action."
From The Guardian • Oct. 12, 2012
The consequences of the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks of September 2001 will ramify for decades.
From Time • May 24, 2012
I need to know that ramify and bifurcate are synonyms, if they even are?
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
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.
