narrow

American  

[nar-oh] / ˈnær oʊ /

adjective

• narrower,
  comparative
• narrowest
  superlative

1. of little breadth or width; not broad or wide; not as wide as usual or expected.

   a narrow path.

2. limited in extent or space; affording little room.

   narrow quarters.

3. limited in range or scope.

   a narrow sampling of public opinion.

4. lacking breadth of view or sympathy, as persons, the mind, or ideas.

   a narrow man, knowing only his professional specialty;

   a narrow mind.

   Synonyms:

   small-minded, shallow, limited, biased

5. with little margin to spare; barely adequate or successful; close.

   a narrow escape.

6. careful, thorough, or minute, as a scrutiny, search, or inquiry.

7. limited in amount; small; meager.

   narrow resources.

8. characterized by limited means; straitened; impoverished.

   Since work was scarce, he soon found himself in narrow circumstances.

9. New England. stingy or parsimonious.

10. Phonetics.

    1. (of a vowel) articulated with the tongue laterally constricted, as the ee of beet, the oo of boot, etc.; tense.

    2. (of a phonetic transcription) utilizing a unique symbol for each phoneme and whatever supplementary diacritics are needed to indicate its subphonemic varieties.

11. (of livestock feeds) proportionately rich in protein.

---

verb (used without object)

• narrows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• narrowed,
  past participle,  past
• narrowing
  present participle

1. to decrease in width or breadth.

   This is where the road narrows.

verb (used with object)

• narrows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• narrowed,
  past participle,  past
• narrowing
  present participle

1. to make narrower.

2. to limit or restrict (often followed bydown ): to narrow down a contest to three competitors.

   to narrow an area of search;

   to narrow down a contest to three competitors.

3. to make narrow-minded.

   Living in that village has narrowed him.

noun

1. a narrow part, place, or thing.

2. a narrow part of a valley, passage, or road.

3. (used with a singular or plural verb) narrows, a narrow part of a strait, river, ocean current, etc.

4. the Narrows, a narrow strait from upper to lower New York Bay, between Staten Island and Long Island. 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long; 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide.

narrow British  

/ ˈnærəʊ /

adjective

1. small in breadth, esp in comparison to length

2. limited in range or extent

3. limited in outlook; lacking breadth of vision

4. limited in means or resources; meagre

   narrow resources

5. barely adequate or successful (esp in the phrase a narrow escape )

6. painstakingly thorough; minute

   a narrow scrutiny

7. finance denoting an assessment of liquidity as including notes and coin in circulation with the public, banks' till money, and banks' balances Compare broad

   narrow money

8. dialect overcareful with money; parsimonious

9. phonetics

   1. another word for tense 1

   2. relating to or denoting a transcription used to represent phonetic rather than phonemic distinctions

   3. another word for close 1

10. (of agricultural feeds) especially rich in protein

11. informal an escape only just managed

---

verb

1. to make or become narrow; limit; restrict

noun

1. a narrow place, esp a pass or strait

narrow Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing narrow

• straight and narrow

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• narrowness
  noun
• overnarrowness
  noun
• overnarrow
  adjective
• unnarrow
  adjective
• unnarrowed
  adjective
• narrowly
  adverb
• overnarrowly
  adverb
• unnarrowly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• narrower
  comparative
• narrowest
  superlative

Participles

• narrowing
  present
• narrowed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• narrow
  simple
• narrows
  simple
• have narrowed
  perfect
• has narrowed
  perfect
• am narrowing
  progressive
• are narrowing
  progressive
• is narrowing
  progressive
• have been narrowing
  perfect progressive
• has been narrowing
  perfect progressive

Past

• narrowed
  simple
• had narrowed
  perfect
• was narrowing
  progressive
• were narrowing
  progressive
• had been narrowing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will narrow
  simple
• will have narrowed
  perfect
• will be narrowing
  progressive
• will have been narrowing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of narrow

First recorded before 900; Middle English narw(e), nareu(e), narow(e), Old English nearu (inflectional stem nearw- ), cognate with Old Saxon naru “narrow,” Dutch naar “dismal, unpleasant,” Old Saxon naro, naru “narrow, depressing”; possibly akin to German Narbe “scar,” literally, “narrow mark”

Explanation

Narrow means less wide or to make less wide. When you narrow down your choices, you decrease the number of choices. A road might be too narrow for a car. When used to describe something physical such as a street or hips, narrow simply means not wide. Similarly, with quantities it means not much like when you win your basketball game by a narrow margin. But if you use it to describe an attitude, it has the negative meaning of not wide or open enough. If you're narrow-minded, you don't see the big picture –– sometimes it means you think in narrow stereotypes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

narrow narrower narrowest narrows narrowed narrowing

AI threatens to make some software tools obsolete, particularly those built around narrow tasks such as legal drafting, research and other repetitive work, reports Kate Clark.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

But yesterday’s results, from El-Sayed’s narrow victory on down, don’t point in any single direction.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

During their early years, the band appealed to a narrow swathe of teens and young adults.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

NHS criteria for screening women under 50 for breast cancer are too narrow and missing up to 95% of those at higher risk of developing the disease, researchers have warned.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

The interior was neat and cozy—one bedroom, a good-sized kitchen, a narrow dining space, and two wing-backed chairs in front of a hearth.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

The question that matters most for investors is narrower: Where in the chain does the shortage sit, and who gets paid for it?

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026

Kraft Heinz had a narrower loss and lower sales in the second quarter, but raised its sales outlook as it aims to mitigate higher supply costs by raising prices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Blanche is already guaranteed a narrower margin, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announcing she will vote to reject his confirmation, and with Sen. Mitch McConnell absent for health reasons.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Hesperosuchus had a longer, narrower snout, while Eosphorosuchus had a shorter and more heavily reinforced skull with stronger jaw muscles.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026

For one thing, Lancelot arrived, at the last moment, by a still narrower margin.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

It’s important to appreciate that the students pressed for the narrowest, most modest ruling possible.

From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said that de la Espriella had "won easily", even though his lead of 0.96 percentage points in the preliminary count is the narrowest in recent Colombian history.

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

Its narrowest point is less than two miles wide, yet it must now accommodate roughly 440 ships a day—60% more than before the war.

From Barron's ● May 22, 2026

With imports from the U.S. declining 1.2% for the month, Canada’s goods-trade surplus with its neighbor widened to C$7.07 billion from a C$2.86 billion in February, the narrowest since May 2020.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026

For all his exposure to the best minds of the Western world, he allowed only the narrowest interpretation to touch him.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

Plaque narrows blood vessels and makes them less flexible, increasing the strain on the cardiovascular system.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026

But "the AI buildout is climbing onto a steeper section of track just as the gap between capital spending and internal cash generation narrows", he warned.

From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026

Companies are seeking lower-cost open-source AI models as their quality gap with closed-source models narrows.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

The road narrows next to the building which the council said meant complete closure was necessary for some of the work.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

The rope lattice of the ratlines narrows as I near the crow’s nest, making the climb feel increasingly treacherous.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

China’s imports increased 27.5% from a year earlier, and its trade surplus narrowed to $112.5 billion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Discovery WBD 0.70%increase; up pointing triangle narrowed its profit in the second quarter, hurt by a large charge, as revenue fell.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Krispy Kreme once again narrowed its loss and expanded margins during its latest quarter, as the doughnut chain continued to make progress with its turnaround plan.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

The poverty-related attainment gap has narrowed compared with both last year and 2019, the year before Covid forced schools to close.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

She narrowed her eyes, which ponies can do very well.

From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness

Blanche had previously said the fund would not proceed, but Cornyn and Tillis demanded a formal written commitment preventing its revival and language narrowing the tax protections.

From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026

When asked if signs of fatigue might include lengthening collection times after sales are booked, or narrowing gross margins, Nelson said those were good examples.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

Last season, he generally played on the left of a 4-2-3-1, narrowing in from the wing and leaving the left-back to provide the width.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

PNC Bank data also show that lower-income household spending, excluding gasoline, has accelerated this year, narrowing the gap with higher-income spending growth to the slimmest margin since 2021.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

She stands quickly, hands on her hips, eyes narrowing, the Fifi we know and love.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

• cramped
• definite
• limited
• precarious
• precise
• slender
• slim
• small
• thin
• tight