|
  • Search Results
  • Advanced Search
  • List Builder
  • Random Word

propagate

To propagate is to be fruitful and multiply, by the usual routes of reproduction, or by spreading something around — like a rumor.

Propagate comes from the Latin word propagare, which means to "reproduce plants, breed." Plants love to propagate, especially when someone with a green thumb starts off with a jade plant stem in water and ends up with a garden full of the succulents. Plants aren't the only things to propagate like bunnies: In the movie Twelve Monkeys, a virus propagates quickly, killing almost everyone in the world. Sound and light can also spread, or propagate, through the air.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: propagate

1
 v
multiply sexually or asexually
2
 v
become distributed or widespread
3
 v
travel through the air
FULL DEFINITIONS OF: propagate
1

v multiply sexually or asexually

Types:
vegetate
propagate asexually
Type of:
multiply, procreate, reproduce
have offspring or produce more individuals of a given animal or plant

v transmit

“propagate sound or light through air”
Type of:
channel, channelise, channelize, transfer, transmit, transport
send from one person or place to another

v transmit from one generation to the next

“propagate these characteristics”
Type of:
pass on
give to or transfer possession of
2

v become distributed or widespread

Synonyms:
spread
Types:
catch
spread or be communicated
Type of:
move
move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion

v transmit or cause to broaden or spread

“This great civilization was propagated throughout the land”
Type of:
distribute, spread
distribute or disperse widely

v cause to become widely known

Synonyms:
broadcast, circularise, circularize, circulate, diffuse, disperse, disseminate, distribute, pass around, spread
circulate, go around, spread
become widely known and passed on
Types:
show 4 types...
hide 4 types...
podcast
distribute (multimedia files) over the internet for playback on a mobile device or a personal computer
sow
introduce into an environment
generalise, generalize, popularise, popularize, vulgarise, vulgarize
cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use
carry, run
include as the content; broadcast or publicize
Type of:
air, bare, publicise, publicize
make public

v cause to propagate, as by grafting or layering

Types:
inoculate
insert a bud for propagation
Type of:
process, treat
subject to a process or treatment, with the aim of readying for some purpose, improving, or remedying a condition
3

v travel through the air

“sound and light propagate in this medium”
Type of:
go, locomote, move, travel
change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
Learn Launch
WORD FAMILY
USAGE EXAMPLES