propaganda

noun pro·pa·gan·da \ˌprä-pə-ˈgan-də, ˌprō-\

: ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause, a political leader, a government, etc.

Full Definition of PROPAGANDA

capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions

: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person

: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect

— pro·pa·gan·dist \-dist\ noun or adjective

— pro·pa·gan·dis·tic \-ˌgan-ˈdis-tik\ adjective

— pro·pa·gan·dis·ti·cal·ly \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

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Examples of PROPAGANDA

She didn't buy into the propaganda of her day that women had to be soft and submissive. —Maria Shriver, Time, 26 Oct. 2009
We've so bought into the mass delusion, the nutty propaganda, that now the ideal American family is one that's on steroids … —Anna Quindlen, Newsweek, 27 Apr. 2009
… just propaganda for a mode of life no one could live without access to the very impulse-suppressing, nostalgia-provoking drugs they don't want you to have … —Richard Ford, Independence Day, 1995
They see all clear thinking, all sense of reality, and all fineness of living, threatened on every side by propaganda, by advertisement, by film and television. —C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, (1961) 2009
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