pervasive

[per-vey-siv]

adjective

1. spread throughout.

   The corruption is so pervasive that it is accepted as the way to do business.

pervasive

/ pɜːˈveɪsɪv /

adjective

1. pervading or tending to pervade

Other Word Forms

• pervasively adverb
• pervasiveness noun
• interpervasive adjective
• interpervasively adverb
• nonpervasive adjective
• nonpervasively adverb
• unpervasive adjective
• unpervasively adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of pervasive¹

First recorded in 1730–40; equivalent to Latin pervās(us), past participle of pervādere “to pass through” + -ive ( def. ); pervade ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of pervasive¹

C18: from Latin pervāsus, past participle of pervādere to _pervade

Example Sentences

The core disputes at the court this year reflect controversial factual questions about gender and race: How pervasive and influential is racism in the current day?

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Above all, we experience a pervasive miasma of helplessness as we are forced to watch this intolerable train wreck.

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“These initiatives really negate and mitigate the very pervasive idea of seeing immigrants as permanent foreigners in this country only because of their color or language,” Syed said.

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"No other population is under such restrictions in today's world," it concluded, adding that surveillance had become "more pervasive", helped in part by advances in technology.

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The series endures because it’s a “comic masterpiece,” Simon said, but also because it “deals with a pervasive societal problem in America: loneliness.”

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Related Words

• common 
• inescapable 
• omnipresent 
• prevalent 
• rife 
• ubiquitous 
• universal