narrow

[ nar-oh ]

/ ˈnær oʊ /

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See synonyms for: narrow / narrowed / narrower / narrowest on Thesaurus.com

adjective, nar·row·er, nar·row·est.

of little breadth or width; not broad or wide; not as wide as usual or expected: a narrow path.

limited in extent or space; affording little room: narrow quarters.

limited in range or scope: a narrow sampling of public opinion.

lacking breadth of view or sympathy, as persons, the mind, or ideas: a narrow man, knowing only his professional specialty;a narrow mind.

with little margin to spare; barely adequate or successful; close: a narrow escape.

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

limited in amount; small; meager: narrow resources.

characterized by limited means; straitened; impoverished: Since work was scarce, he soon found himself in narrow circumstances.

New England. stingy or parsimonious.

Phonetics.

(of a vowel) articulated with the tongue laterally constricted, as the ee of beet, the oo of boot, etc.; tense.Compare lax¹ (def. 7).
(of a phonetic transcription) utilizing a unique symbol for each phoneme and whatever supplementary diacritics are needed to indicate its subphonemic varieties.Compare broad (def. 14).

(of livestock feeds) proportionately rich in protein.

verb (used without object)

to decrease in width or breadth: This is where the road narrows.

verb (used with object)

to make narrower.

to limit or restrict (often followed by down): to narrow an area of search;to narrow down a contest to three competitors.

to make narrow-minded: Living in that village has narrowed him.

noun

a narrow part, place, or thing.

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

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

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.

OTHER WORDS FOR narrow

4 biased, limited, shallow, small-minded.

See synonyms for narrow on Thesaurus.com

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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”

OTHER WORDS FROM narrow

nar·row·ly, adverbnar·row·ness, nouno·ver·nar·row, adjectiveo·ver·nar·row·ly, adverb

o·ver·nar·row·ness, nounun·nar·row, adjectiveun·nar·row·ly, adverbun·nar·rowed, adjective

Words nearby narrow

narration, narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, narrativize, narrator, narrow, narrowback, narrowband, narrow boat, narrow-bodied, narrowcast

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use narrow in a sentence

Even those who were in the Capitol that day had only a narrow sense of what happened.
I was skeptical of Democrats pursuing a second impeachment. I was wrong.|Karen Tumulty|February 11, 2021|Washington Post
Google previously added a menu at the top to let you filter based on those alternate meanings and better narrow down the search results to what you are looking for.
Google Image Search update reduces duplicate image results|Barry Schwartz|February 11, 2021|Search Engine Land
As we noted earlier, the research subjects — college students and MTurk users — they represent narrow slices of the population.
Can I Ask You a Ridiculously Personal Question? (Ep. 451)|Stephen J. Dubner|February 11, 2021|Freakonomics
Her terror is played out for entertainment, whether that means a narrow escape or a bloody death.
Capitol rioters searched for Nancy Pelosi in a way that should make every woman’s skin crawl|Monica Hesse|February 11, 2021|Washington Post

I think that on both sides of the aisle, you see these entrenched politicians, this entrenched political class who have a very narrow viewpoint of how the world should act.
When Madison Cawthorn Felt ‘Invisible’|Eugene Robinson|February 9, 2021|Ozy
What it endangers is a narrow conception of Russian power, understood through the eyes of its dictatorial leader.
Oliver Stone’s Latest Dictator Suckup|James Kirchick|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
By that time, SantaCon had already spread beyond the narrow confines of a few prankster-explorers.
Before the Bros, SantaCon Was as an Anti-Corporate Protest|David Freedlander|December 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A cruiser shows up and eyes narrow and citizens often withdraw.
The Wildly Peaceful, Human, Almost Boring, Ultimately Great New York City Protests for Eric Garner|Mike Barnicle|December 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And besides, the studies that do enjoy widespread media circulation focus on a very narrow segment of the LGBT community: gay men.
The Problematic Hunt for a ‘Gay Gene’|Samantha Allen|November 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He has sunken eyes and a narrow black beard speckled with gray.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley|Matt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman|November 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The streets here are rather wide for an Italian city but would be deemed intolerably narrow in America.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
He is rather tall and narrow, and wears a long abb's coat reaching nearly down to his feet.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
As he was toiling slowly up a narrow, rocky pass, he suddenly saw an Indian's head peering over the ledge.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
Her thin and narrow hands held the balcony railing rather tightly.
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens
When we got to the house we entered an obscure corridor and began to find our way up a dark and narrow staircase.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay

British Dictionary definitions for narrow

narrow

/ (ˈnærəʊ) /

adjective

small in breadth, esp in comparison to length

limited in range or extent

limited in outlook; lacking breadth of vision

limited in means or resources; meagrenarrow resources

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

painstakingly thorough; minutea narrow scrutiny

finance denoting an assessment of liquidity as including notes and coin in circulation with the public, banks' till money, and banks' balancesnarrow money Compare broad (def. 14)

dialect overcareful with money; parsimonious

phonetics

another word for tense 1 (def. 4)
relating to or denoting a transcription used to represent phonetic rather than phonemic distinctions
another word for close 1 (def. 21)

(of agricultural feeds) especially rich in protein

narrow squeak informal an escape only just managed

verb

to make or become narrow; limit; restrict

noun

a narrow place, esp a pass or strait

Derived forms of narrow

narrowly, adverbnarrowness, noun

Word Origin for narrow

Old English nearu; related to Old Saxon naru

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with narrow

narrow

In addition to the idiom beginning with narrow

narrow escape

, see

straight and narrow

narrow

OTHER WORDS FOR narrow

Origin of narrow

OTHER WORDS FROM narrow

Words nearby narrow

Words related to narrow

How to use narrow in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for narrow

Derived forms of narrow

Word Origin for narrow

Other Idioms and Phrases with narrow