Words / P / General

pullulate

verb/ˈpʌljʊleɪt/

C2CEFR level
93/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

To breed, sprout or swarm rapidly and in great numbers.

The stagnant pond pullulated with tadpoles and mosquito larvae by June.

Similar: teem, swarm

Origin: from Latin pullulare 'to sprout'

Topic: growth in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: growth