to proliferate
23
9.5
- verb
- /prəˈlɪfəˌreɪt/
:
proliferar
- When the conditions are right, bacteria can proliferate rapidly, which can lead to food spoilage.
- nuclear weapons proliferate
- weapons proliferate
- proliferate rapidly
Microbes are not the cause of disease, although they will proliferate in certain conditions.
- Microbes are not the cause of disease, although they will proliferate in certain conditions.
- And, you know, it's, it's something that has sort of proliferated into my generation.
- And any seceding of ground is you allowing them to proliferate these really terrible ideas.
- And and I think with the Internet, ideas have been proliferating.
- And so it's no surprise that prejudices like begin to proliferate in society.
- You know, there this is a time where conman and charlatans are proliferating.
- They essentially help those bugs proliferate.
- So, so the world has gotten more complex and more challenging and the threats I think have proliferated in ways that we didn't expect.
- They try and find and create environments that make it easier for them to proliferate.
- Like a handful of mostly white guys deciding which technologies are going to sort of proliferate in in society at a given time.
- So then we created all of these parking minimums as another new innovation and parking proliferated.
- And it changes from place to place, and it changes from decade to decade as the fads, you know, proliferate.
Examples
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Bilateral and regional trade agreements are proliferating, so that the system risks fragmentation.
Academic text (2008) -
39 And as autonomous weapons proliferate, they will present a new frontier of challenges.
Academic text (2017) -
Representative examples proliferate among the classic free speech cases that would be familiar to most law students.
Academic text (2017) -
In fact, cells in your brain don't proliferate at all, right?
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Microbes are not the cause of disease, although they will proliferate in certain conditions.
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If you take away a species' natural competition, they'll proliferate out of control.
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Now it appears EV startups are proliferating outside of China.
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Since the late 1980s, GRSOs have proliferated in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Academic text (1994) -
For example, artists' collectives were proliferating and commanding newfound respect in New York in the 1980s.
Academic text (2011) -
Apps, operating systems, tablets, laptops, hybrid laptop-tablets, and mobile devices proliferate and evolve quickly.
Academic text (2015)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Become gradually a certain way, for example feeling or weather
904
1.0
To become greater in amount or strength
805
2.5
To grow larger in size, amount, or importance
75
3.2
To increase in number quickly by making more of something
28
7.6
To grow or increase very quickly
2
2.9
To help something become bigger or better over time
Increase very quickly, growing faster and faster
Start to grow or spread very quickly across an area
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
proliferate = proliferation (opaque) = prolifer + ate
The verb is built from a Latin combining stem plus the suffix -ate; the internal parts are not productive or familiar to average B1 learners, so the relation is not transparently derivable.
Etymology
The word proliferate comes from the Latin parts proles 'offspring' and ferre 'to carry'. It's the same root as prolific, which means 'producing a lot'. So, to proliferate is to multiply or spread quickly, like something that keeps making more offspring.