proliferated

verb

past tense of proliferate
as in increased
to become greater in extent, volume, amount, or number rumors about the incident proliferated on the Internet

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of proliferated And fortunately, the options for cute and comfy shoes have proliferated. — Cheryl Wagemann, InStyle, 23 June 2026 The miners, who come from across eastern Congo, are highly mobile — yet another reason that Ebola has proliferated so quickly. — Emmet Livingstone, NPR, 24 June 2026 That changed as Americans wholeheartedly embraced the automobile and a new innovation—the drive-in gasoline station—proliferated at an astonishing rate across the country. — Daniel Yergin, Time, 20 June 2026 The parades proliferated, celebrating various feats in aviation, war, sports, music, space travel and more, according to the museum and the Downtown Alliance. — Jennifer Peltz, Fortune, 17 June 2026 The school will launch as a one-room, 1,200-square-foot schoolhouse in Fort Greene, similar to the learning pods that proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic. — Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News, 27 June 2026 Satellite dishes proliferated on the rooftops of scam centers in Myanmar, satellite imagery showed, and Starlink usage in Myanmar surged, according to APNIC data. — ABC News, 30 June 2026 After Kirk’s death, Club America chapters proliferated in Palm Beach County’s private schools, including the Benjamin School, which is among the most academically rigorous. — Eliza Griswold, New Yorker, 22 June 2026 Similar calls and texts proliferated throughout Springfield’s Haitian community, triggering a tsunami of fear, panic and confusion, said Viles Dorsainvil, director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. — Josh Feldman, NBC news, 30 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for proliferated
  1. increased
  2. swelled
  3. accelerated
  4. expanded
  5. rose
  6. multiplied
Verb
  • And Harleys has entirely redesigned the rear -suspension and increased its travel 117 per cent to five inches (13 cm).
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 6 July 2026
  • The share of workers with hybrid schedules has increased a bit, while the share in fully remote positions has only seen a slight decline.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 5 July 2026
Definition of increased
Verb
  • Her five of fifty-eight party-line rulings swelled this term to thirteen of fifty-six.
    — Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 30 June 2026
  • Over the last three years, DpHue has more than doubled its business in Ulta and Amazon, specifically, as the at-home color market has swelled 3 to 5 percent annually.
    — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 29 June 2026
Definition of swelled
Verb
  • This openness also accelerated the tech industry in a less obvious way.
    — David Siegel, Fortune, 3 July 2026
  • The financial collapse in 2008 accelerated wealth inequality.
    — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 3 July 2026
Definition of accelerated
Verb
  • Since his appointment to COO in 2018, the firm’s assets under management have roughly doubled, while its client base has expanded across new geographies.
    — Rachel Ventresca, Fortune, 5 July 2026
  • Companies that made the largest AI investment expanded entry-level job hiring by 12%.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2026
Definition of expanded
Verb
  • Revenue at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, rose to $77 million from roughly $50 million in 2024, the filing shows.
    — Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 1 July 2026
  • But under the new system, average premiums rose — pushing more people to drop coverage.
    — Brian New, CBS News, 1 July 2026
Definition of rose
Verb
  • The number of animals in his care has multiplied since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, as hundreds of thousands of southern Lebanon residents fled and were unable to take their pets or farm animals.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 July 2026
  • Beside the foreign brigades and their dogs, Venezuelan teams like K-Sar Ecid worked as peers; the collaboration multiplied what neither could have achieved alone.
    — Luis E. Romero, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
Definition of multiplied

Browse Nearby Words

proliferate
proliferated
proliferates
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Proliferated.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/proliferated. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on proliferated

Nglish: Translation of proliferated for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gambol

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All