broaden
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
broadens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
broadened,
past participle, past
-
broadening
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
broadensimple
-
broadenssimple
-
have broadenedperfect
-
has broadenedperfect
-
am broadeningprogressive
-
are broadeningprogressive
-
is broadeningprogressive
-
have been broadeningperfect progressive
-
has been broadeningperfect progressive
Past
-
broadenedsimple
-
had broadenedperfect
-
was broadeningprogressive
-
were broadeningprogressive
-
had been broadeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of broaden
Explanation
To broaden something is to make it wider or more expansive. If you wake up feeling less than cheerful, the sight of the doughnuts your dad got for breakfast might broaden your smile. Something can broaden literally, like a river that broadens as you hike beside it, growing wider as it flows south. Things also broaden figuratively, the way people's minds tend to broaden when they travel around the world and meet people from different cultures. In both cases, things that broaden expand and become more open.
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.
See Examples For:
“Really, we just want to see the first transactions go well and to broaden the number of use cases.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The ezCater acquisition comes as Uber moves to broaden its global food delivery footprint.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Hiring has also begun to broaden out beyond healthcare, which accounted for 95% of all new jobs in 2025.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
His goal is to broaden the museum’s reach, not just show by show, but by connecting it to a larger community of civic leaders and arts organizations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
After a time, they dug carefully to broaden the run and as the day wore on the does, each in turn, remained beside him, licking his wounds and listening to his low, unsteady breathing.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
The discovery broadens the known variety of magnetic minerals found in lunar samples.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026
The move broadens the existing California-Quebec carbon market, linked in 2014.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
“Customer demand is accelerating as enterprise adoption broadens and we continue to deepen our technology platform.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
The new framework broadens accountability to nonprofit institutions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Her smile broadens, and for a moment, I feel that I recognize her.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
He said the company has broadened its customer base to include multiple hyperscalers — or large cloud companies that provide computing power.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
She even sought out McDonald, another yacht rock OG, for a collab that didn’t end up making the LP, which expanded beyond her original premise as her listening broadened along with her cooking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Every third EV sold in the U.S. this year has been a Model Y. This summer, Tesla broadened the vehicle’s appeal by launching a slightly longer variant, the Model Y L, with six seats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
"We have broadened the potential application of these materials," Singh said.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
The company has also made progress in broadening its business, including through networking products.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
She says the explosion of content online has "definitely helped" with broadening attitudes to women taking up DIY or a trade.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Columnist Elizabeth Bernstein explores the factors that psychologists, sociologists and other experts believe are driving it, from social-media algorithms to changing therapeutic approaches and a broadening definition of trauma.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
The stock market stands to benefit from a broadening of the AI trade on productivity gains, she said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
The hobbits felt encouraged, and looked up hopefully at the broadening daylight in the sky.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
