proliferation

From French prolifération

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˌlɪfəˈɹeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

proliferation (countable and uncountable, plural proliferations)

1. (uncountable) The process by which an organism produces others of its kind; breeding, propagation, procreation, reproduction.
2. (countable) The act of increasing or rising; augmentation, amplification, enlargement, escalation, aggrandizement.
   • 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:

     One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools […] as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.

3. (countable) The result of building up; buildup, accretion.
4. (uncountable) The spread of biochemical, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction to countries not originally involved in developing them.

• horizontal proliferation
• vertical proliferation