width

American  

[width, witth, with] / wɪdθ, wɪtθ, wɪθ /

noun

1. extent from side to side; breadth; wideness.

2. a piece of the full wideness, as of cloth.

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width British  

/ wɪdθ /

noun

1. the linear extent or measurement of something from side to side, usually being the shortest dimension or (for something fixed) the shortest horizontal dimension

2. the state or fact of being wide

3. a piece or section of something at its full extent from side to side

   a width of cloth

4. the distance across a rectangular swimming bath, as opposed to its length

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Etymology

Origin of width

1620–30; wide + -th ¹, modeled on breadth, etc.

Example Sentences

With Bath playing with more width and ruthlessness – nine tries from 17 visits to the Saracens 22m – some of the pre-Six Nations concerns over the defending champions were allayed.

From BBC

At last, the morning of the fourth day, the train stopped again and the door was opened its full width.

From Literature

We built up one side of the wagon with twelve-inch widths of lumber we called bang boards.

From Literature

Both are around 20 miles wide, with most ships using just a small portion of that width.

From Barron's

The distance between those two sentences is the width of my luck.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• diameter
• girth
• scope
• span
• thickness