ubiquitous
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See omnipresent.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ubiquitous
First recorded in 1830–40; ubiquit(y) + -ous
Explanation
It's everywhere! It's everywhere! When something seems like it's present in all places at the same time, reach for the adjective ubiquitous. "Cities like Singapore aim to cloak themselves in ubiquitous, free Wi-Fi in the next few years," The Wall Street Journal reported recently — meaning that those savvy Singaporeans will find a wireless connection everywhere they go. The word comes from the Latin ubique, meaning — you guessed it — "everywhere." The usual pronunciation is "yoo-BIK-wih-tihs," but Joseph Heller must have had the older variant "ooh-BIK-wih-tihs" in mind when he wrote in Catch-22 that a character "padded through the shadows fruitlessly like an ubiquitous spook."
Vocabulary lists containing ubiquitous
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
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Vocabulary from "Stop Expecting Games to Build Empathy" by Julie Muncy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Then there are off-the-shelf products such as Harvey, Legora and CoCounsel that are quickly becoming ubiquitous across the industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Witkoff has become so ubiquitous in international transactions that his role as the co-founder of Trump’s business has all but faded into the gilt wallpaper of the Oval Office.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
This is not new: authorities in Vietnam perennially and publicly bust bootleg vendors to show that they are doing something about the country's ubiquitous shadow economies.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
Whether the episode amounted to anything beyond hearsay amid the ubiquitous sense of mass confusion and despair remains a question mark.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
The tendency to attribute meaning to phenomena governed only by chance is ubiquitous.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
