Promulgate

//ˈpɹɑ.məl.ɡeɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make known or make public. transitive

    "’Tis yet to know, / Which when I know, that boaſting is an Honour, / I ſhall promulgate. I fetch by life and being, / From Men of Royall Seige."

  2. 2
    put a law into effect by formal declaration wordnet
  3. 3
    To put into effect as a regulation. transitive

    "[…] the Statute of Uses was delayed until 1536 and the Statute of Wills until 1540, but both statutes were promulgated in 1532, and formed part of a policy which we may compare, not favourably, with the of Edward I[…]"

  4. 4
    state or announce wordnet
  5. 5
    To advocate on behalf of (something or someone, especially of an idea); to spread knowledge of and make more widely known. nonstandard, transitive
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  1. 6
    past participle of promulgate form-of, obsolete, participle, past

Synonyms

All synonyms
carry outdeclareproclaimproclaimabide byadhere to

Example

More examples

"They are simply trying to promulgate an accurate version of the facts."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English promulgaten, from Latin prōmulgātus, perfect passive participle of prōmulgō (“to make known, publish”), either from provulgō (“to make known, publish”), from pro (“forth”) + vulgō (“to publish”), or from mulgeō (“to bring forth”, literally “to milk”); see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Doublet of promulge.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.