proliferate

English

Etymology

From Latin proles (“offspring”) + ferre (“to bear”) + -ate

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /pɹəˈlɪf.ɜː(ɹ).eɪt/, X-SAMPA: /pr@"lIf.3:(r).eIt/
• (US) IPA: /pɹoʊˈlɪfəɹeɪt/ X-SAMPA: [pr\oU"lIf@r\eIt]

Verb

proliferate (third-person singular simple present proliferates, present participle proliferating, simple past and past participle proliferated)

1. To increase in number or spread rapidly.

   The flowers proliferated rapidly all spring.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, Internal Combustion^[1]:

     But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries.  By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

Related terms

• proliferation
• proliferative
• proliferous
• prolific

Translations

to increase in number

• Dutch: snel vermenigvuldigen
• Finnish: lisääntyä nopeasti
• German: sich ausbreiten (de), sich vermehren (de)
• Russian: размножаться (ru) (razmnožátʹsja) impf., размножиться (ru) (razmnóžitʹsja) pf. (intransitive, to multiply), распространяться (ru) (rasprostranjátʹsja) impf., распространиться (ru) (rasprostranítʹsja) pf. (intransitive, to spread), распространять (ru) (rasprostranjátʹ) impf., распространить (ru) (rasprostranítʹ) pf. (transitive, to spread)

• Serbo-Croatian: proliferírati (sh), пролифери́рати (sh)
• Spanish: proliferar (es)

External links

• proliferate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• proliferate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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Italian

Verb

proliferate

1. second-person plural present indicative of proliferare
2. second-person plural imperative of proliferare
3. Feminine plural of proliferato

Anagrams

• petrolifera