Meaning & use
propaganda
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Meanings
noununcountabledisapproving
Information or ideas, often one-sided or false, spread on purpose to win support for a cause or to damage an opponent.
Grammar: Never takes a plural or a: the government spread propaganda, not a propaganda.
Patterns
- spread propaganda
- propaganda against someone
- a piece of propaganda
The regime used propaganda to hide the failure of the harvest.
The posters were wartime propaganda aimed at raising morale.
Critics dismissed the article as political propaganda.
noununcountable
A planned campaign or organization that promotes a particular belief, often by repeated slogans or media.
Grammar: Used about the activity or machinery of persuasion, with a modifier such as state or government.
Patterns
- state propaganda
- a propaganda campaign
State propaganda filled the television schedule.
The ministry ran a propaganda campaign against the new law.
Historians study how propaganda shaped public opinion in the twentieth century.
Common combinations
- political propaganda
- The leaflet was pure political propaganda.
- spread propaganda
- Both sides spread propaganda during the conflict.
- wartime propaganda
- Wartime propaganda urged citizens to save food.
- propaganda machine
- The state's propaganda machine ran day and night.
- propaganda poster
- A faded propaganda poster hung in the museum.
- pure propaganda
- His speech was pure propaganda, with no facts at all.
Synonyms and how they differ
- disinformation
- Disinformation is deliberately false information, whereas propaganda may be partly true but one-sided.
- spin
- Spin is a lighter, informal term for putting a favorable slant on a story, while propaganda is a heavier, organized effort.
- agitprop
- Agitprop is narrower and refers to political art or messaging used to push a cause, especially Communist ones.
- publicity
- Publicity is a neutral word for getting public attention, and it does not imply deceit.
Opposites
Word family
- propagandist noun
- a person who spreads propaganda
- propagandize verb
- to spread propaganda
- propagandistic adjective
- relating to or typical of propaganda
- propagate verb
- to spread an idea or breed plants
Commonly confused: propaganda or publicity?
propaganda vs publicity
Publicity is attention or advertising that can be honest, but propaganda suggests one-sided persuasion for a political cause.
Practice
The leaflets exaggerated the government's successes and ignored its failures. This is best described as ____.
Choose one answer.
One-sided information designed to win support is propaganda. A forecast predicts, a review evaluates and an invoice is a bill.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “propaganda”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.