Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAgitation, publicity, public communication aimed at influencing an audience and furthering an agenda.
nounAgitation, 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.
Sentence Examples
Don't swallow that slick propaganda.
Appreciate the importance of propaganda in politics.
Have you ever compared the assertions of official propaganda to reality?
CEFR Practice Quiz
During the war, the government spread ____ to convince citizens to support the conflict.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The regime used state-controlled media to spread ____ and suppress any criticism of its policies.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *per-der.?
Proto-Indo-European *per-der.?
Proto-Indo-European *pér
Proto-Indo-European *-o
Proto-Indo-European *pró
Proto-Indo-European *pro-
Proto-Italic *pro-
Latin prō-
Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-
Latin prōpāgō
Latin prōpāgandus
New Latin prōpāgandader.
English propaganda
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”). Once the word had been detached from the phrase from which it originated, it could be reinterpreted as a neuter plural gerundive, meaning "things to be propagated"; compare agenda. Modern political sense dates from World War I, not originally pejorative.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Meanwhile, with something like twenty-five million new mouths bawling for food every year, the supply problem became steadily worse, and after years of ineffective propaganda a couple of atrocious harvests had at last made the people aware of its urgency."
— 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 28:
"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."
— 2002, Noam Chomsky, “Selections”, in Media Control:
"In this metropolis that had a prewar population of almost a million, but where the city center now feels like an Orwellian ghost town of propaganda posters and armed patrols, perhaps no one feels more alone than those who still harbor pro-Ukrainian sentiments."
— 2014 September 25, Anthony Faiola, “An Orwellian nightmare for pro-Ukrainians in rebel-held east”, in The Washington Post, Nash Holdings, LLC, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2016, retrieved 25 Sep 2014: