Propaganda
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Agitation, publicity, public communication aimed at influencing an audience and furthering an agenda. uncountable, usually
"Despite being biased and often untrue, propaganda material can be useful in OSINT analysis."
- 2 plural of propagandum form-of, plural
- 3 information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause wordnet
- 4 Agitation, publicity, public communication aimed at influencing an audience and furthering an agenda.; The propagation of the faith by the Catholic Church by means of missionary work etc. historical, uncountable, usually
- 5 Such communication specifically when it is biased, misleading, or provoking mainly emotional responses. derogatory, uncountable, usually
"They established a government propaganda commission, called the Creel Commission, which succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to destroy everything German, tear the Germans limb from limb, go to war and save the world."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Don't swallow that slick propaganda."
Etymology
From New Latin prōpāganda, short for Congregātiō dē Prōpāgandā Fidē (“a committee of cardinals established in 1622 by Gregory XV to supervise foreign missions”, literally “congregation for propagating the faith”), and properly the ablative feminine gerundive of Latin prōpāgō (“propagate”). Modern political sense dates from World War I, not originally pejorative.
Related phrases
More for "propaganda"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.