Link Centre Dictionary

proliferate

pro·li·fe·rate

UK/pɹəˈlɪf.əɹ.eɪt/ US/proʊˈlɪfɜrˌeɪt/ uncommon

verb

1.

grow rapidly

  • “Pizza parlors proliferate in this area”
2.

cause to grow or increase rapidly

  • “We must not proliferate nuclear arms”

Origin

Back-formation from proliferation.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.