Propaganda

How to spell propaganda

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce propaganda

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does propaganda mean?

1. nounInformation, often biased or misleading, spread systematically to promote a political cause or point of view.

Propaganda in a sentence

• The regime used state television to broadcast propaganda every evening.

• Historians study wartime posters as a form of government propaganda.

Where does propaganda come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Propaganda comes directly from Latin and carries an unusual religious history. In 1622 Pope Gregory XV founded a committee of cardinals called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, literally the 'congregation for propagating the faith', whose job was to spread Catholic teaching in mission territories. The key word propaganda is a form of the Latin verb propagare, which meant to multiply plants by layering cuttings, and so by extension to breed, spread or extend; its literal sense was to fasten a shoot into the ground so it takes root. From the church body the single word propaganda was lifted into English in the eighteenth century to mean any organised scheme for spreading a doctrine or opinion. Its meaning darkened in the twentieth century, especially around the World Wars, when it came to suggest biased or misleading information pushed to influence the public. The gardening root explains the spelling: think of an idea being 'propagated' like a plant, which keeps the single p in the middle and the -anda ending intact.

How the word is built

• propag- (from propagare: to propagate, spread, set forward)
• -anda (Latin gerundive ending, 'things to be spread')