WordGarden.iopropagation
C1Pronunciation
UK
- /prˌɒpəɡˈeɪʃən/
US
- /ˌprɑpəˈɡeɪʃən/
Meanings
Noun
the transmission or spread of something through a medium or system, especially a wave, signal, or physical effect
the spreading or promotion of an idea, belief, story, or piece of information
the breeding or growing of plants or other organisms from seed, cuttings, or other reproductive means
Beyond the definition
Propagation may sound formal, but it simply means the way something spreads, grows, or is passed along. A gardener can use seeds or cuttings to grow new plants. News can move quickly through a town. A virus can spread from person to person. A signal can travel from one place to another. In each case, the idea is the same: something begins in one place and then reaches farther.
Propagation is the process by which something spreads, grows, reproduces, or is carried forward. People often meet the word first in biology, where it describes how plants or other living things produce new life, but the idea also appears in medicine, technology, physics, and everyday language.
In gardening and botany, propagation means creating new plants from seeds, cuttings, bulbs, spores, or similar methods. A gardener might propagate a favorite rose from a cutting so that the same kind of plant can keep growing in another place. In this sense, the word is closely tied to reproduction and continued growth.
The term is also used for things that move across space or through a system. In medicine and public health, it can describe how an infection spreads. In physics and engineering, it refers to the travel of waves or signals, such as light, sound, or radio signals, through a medium. In computing, an error or change can propagate from one part of a system to another, affecting more than the original source.
By extension, propagation can describe the spread of ideas, beliefs, rumors, or messages. If news propagates through a town, it passes from person to person until many people know it. Across all of these uses, the central meaning stays the same: something starts, moves outward, and continues onward or grows into more of itself.
Examples
- 1
Plant cuttings
The nursery teaches simple propagation methods for growing herbs from cuttings.
- 2
Seeds
Seed propagation takes longer than buying young plants, but it costs much less.
- 3
Sound travel
The engineer measured the propagation of sound through the tunnel.
- 4
Radio signals
Thick walls can interfere with radio-wave propagation inside a building.
More examplesFewer examples
- 5
False information
The campaign focused on stopping the propagation of false information online.
- 6
Calculation errors
Small rounding mistakes can affect the propagation of errors through a long calculation.
See also
Similar
Shades of meaning
Contrast
Used with (collocations)
- wave propagation
- signal propagation
- propagation delay
- propagation of errors
Word family
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Forms and spellings
2 forms open this card.
Main spelling
- propagationnoun
Forms
- propagationspluralnoun