Meaning & use
promote
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To give someone a more senior job or higher rank.
Grammar: Takes a person as the object: they promoted her.
Patterns
- promote someone to something
- promote someone from something
The company promoted her to regional manager last spring.
He was promoted after only a year on the job.
The army promoted the young officer to captain.
verbtransitivebusiness
To advertise or publicize a product, event or idea so that people will know about it and want it.
Grammar: The object is usually a product or event: promote a new album.
Patterns
- promote something
- promote something on something
The band is touring to promote its new album.
Local shops promoted the festival with posters.
The author appeared on television to promote her book.
verbtransitive
To encourage or help something to develop or to be more widely accepted.
Grammar: Usually takes an abstract object like health, peace or understanding.
Patterns
- promote something
- promote understanding
The program aims to promote healthy eating among teenagers.
Schools should promote respect between students.
Regular exercise promotes better sleep.
verbtransitivesportBritish
To move a team or player to a higher division in a sports league.
Grammar: Often used in the passive: the club was promoted.
Patterns
- be promoted to something
The club was promoted to the top division after winning the playoff.
Three teams are promoted each season.
Promoted last year, the side survived comfortably.
Word forms
| third person singular | promotes |
|---|---|
| past tense | promoted |
| past participle | promoted |
| -ing form | promoting |
Common combinations
- promote a product
- Celebrities are paid to promote a product on social media.
- promote awareness
- The campaign aims to promote awareness of heart disease.
- promote growth
- Low taxes may promote growth in small firms.
- be promoted to
- She was promoted to head of the department.
- promote equality
- The law was meant to promote equality in schools.
- promote tourism
- The city launched ads to promote tourism.
Synonyms and how they differ
- advance
- Advance can mean moving someone up in rank, but also general progress, and is less tied to a formal job title than promote.
- advertise
- Advertise only covers marketing a product, while promote also covers ideas and careers.
- encourage
- Encourage means urging someone or something to happen, but promote suggests active, organized support.
- upgrade
- Upgrade moves someone or something to a higher level but is used for equipment and services more than for people's careers.
Opposites
Word family
- promotion noun
- a move to a higher job, or an advertising campaign
- promoter noun
- a person who organizes or advertises events
- promotional adjective
- relating to advertising
- promotable adjective
- able to be promoted
Commonly confused: promote or promote? promote or demote?
promote vs promote
Promote (to raise or advertise) is sometimes confused with 'prompt', which means to cause someone to act or to cue them.
promote vs demote
Demote is the opposite: to move someone to a lower rank.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'promote' to mean advertise?
Choose one answer.
Only the shop sentence is about advertising a product. The first and last are about rank, and the third is about encouraging a result.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “promote”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.