propound
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to suggest or put forward for consideration
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English law
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to produce (a will or similar instrument) to the proper court or authority in order for its validity to be established
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(of an executor) to bring (an action to obtain probate) in solemn form
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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propoundsimple
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propoundssimple
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have propoundedperfect
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has propoundedperfect
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am propoundingprogressive
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are propoundingprogressive
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is propoundingprogressive
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have been propoundingperfect progressive
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has been propoundingperfect progressive
Past
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propoundedsimple
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had propoundedperfect
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was propoundingprogressive
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were propoundingprogressive
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had been propoundingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of propound
1545–55; later variant of Middle English propone ( see propone) < Latin prōpōnere to set forth, equivalent to prō- pro- 1 + pōnere to put, place, set. See compound 1, expound
Explanation
When you propound an idea, you put it forward. If you tell your teacher that listening to music in class would help students do their work, then you propound the idea that music can be a motivator. The word propound is a little bit formal and often used in reference to something that’s weighty and serious. Beloved by academics of all types, you might hear someone propound, say, his theory of logocentrism in the works of Jacques Derrida. Don’t worry: you don’t need to understand the theory, you just need to understand that propound means he’s putting it out there.
Vocabulary lists containing propound
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
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The Importance of Being Earnest
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The Turn of the Screw
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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:
"And no matter what you may think, Mr. Kennedy. And I revere your name. You're not here to propound your case for censorship," Connolly said.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2023
“We can’t wait to propound searing questions about the finances of these individuals and these groups.”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 14, 2021
Leaders like FDR, JFK, Wałęsa, and Nehru demonstrated that democrats can propound powerful liberal-national narratives.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2020
Nenshi and his supporters propound Canadian Exceptionalism: We would stage these Games as we do everything, which is to say on budget and without corruption or toleration of doping.
From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2018
I was not free from apprehension that he would come back to propound through the gate, “And sixteen?”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
How did a pluralistic nation that propounds democratic values and practices come to this?
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2017
Whereas previous jihadist narratives were all about “resistance” to imagined enemies, IS propounds what Mr Winter calls “the propaganda of the winner”.
From Economist ● Aug. 13, 2015
Whereas once I lauded this program, now I am absolutely disgusted by the moral nihilism it propounds.
From Time ● Apr. 1, 2013
The Conclusion to his book of Renaissance essays, published in 1873, was seized on for the ardour with which Pater propounds a philosophy of beauty.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 26, 2011
I seriously believe that the general problem of the subliminal, as Myers propounds it, promises to be one of the great problems, possibly even the greatest problem, of psychology....
From The Letters of William James, Vol. II by James, William
Many economists who propounded the inevitability of business cycles, including Kuznets, Hayek, Paul Samuelson and James Tobin, have won Nobel Prizes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Kohn addresses the failures of “behaviorism” — as propounded by the psychologist B.F.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
As with Giles Martin's previous efforts, the remixed "Revolver" clearly benefited from his interest in breathing new life into the original, highly compressed mixes propounded by his father in the 1960s.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2022
Before sinking into insanity, Friedrich Nietzsche propounded a theory that still reverberates in the intelligentsia: There are no “facts,” “only interpretations.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 25, 2022
An absolutely fundamental concept, that of statistical significance, was first propounded by Ronald Fisher in 1925.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Fighting open white supremacism, defending human rights and the rule of law, propounding international cooperation, rejecting narrow nationalism, so many of these debates seem to belong to another age.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 22, 2020
“There are so many moving parts here, and we need to prioritize what we respond to and what we propound. We have to be proactively propounding an alternative vision that recalls American core values.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2017
Revisionist takes on characters have a pleasing audacity, but Morrison isn't so much propounding a thesis as approaching a classic with a different level of political awareness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2015
The data, Jefferson showed, simply didn’t support this the dangerous theory Buffon was propounding.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2012
And if he were still with us and propounding his views merely by word of mouth, a discussion without writing would have sufficed to persuade and convince our opponents by way of question and answer.
From St. Dionysius of Alexandria Letters and Treatises by Alexandria, Bishop of
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.
