Promote

How to spell promote

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce promote

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does promote mean?

1. verbTo raise someone to a higher rank, or to actively support, encourage, or advertise something.

Promote in a sentence

• The company plans to promote her to regional manager next month.

• The new campaign aims to promote healthy eating among office staff.

Where does promote come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb promovere, which literally meant 'to move forward', built from the prefix pro- meaning 'forward' and the verb movere meaning 'to move'. The past participle form was promotus, and it is from this stem that the modern spelling, ending in -mote, derives. English took the word in during the late 1300s, partly through Old French, with the early sense of advancing someone to a higher office or rank. From that idea of moving a person upward came the broader senses we use today: encouraging the growth of something, and, by the eighteenth century, actively advertising a product to boost its sales. The shared movere root also sits inside familiar relatives such as 'motion', 'remove', and 'motor', which is a useful reminder that the heart of the word is plain motion forward.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• mote (from Latin movere/motus: to move)