broadcast
Americanverb (used with object)
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to transmit (programs) from a radio or television station.
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to speak, perform, sponsor, or present on a radio or television program.
The president will broadcast his message on all stations tonight.
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to cast or scatter abroad over an area, as seed in sowing.
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to spread widely; disseminate.
She broadcast the good news all over town.
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to indicate unwittingly to another (one's next action); telegraph.
He broadcast his punch and the other man was able to parry it.
verb (used without object)
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to transmit programs or signals from a radio or television station.
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to make something known widely; disseminate something.
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to speak, perform, sponsor, or present all or part of a radio or television program.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcasts every Saturday on our local station.
noun
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something that is broadcast.
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a single radio or television program.
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the broadcasting of radio or television messages, speeches, etc.
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a single period of broadcasting
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a method of sowing by scattering seed.
adjective
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(of programs) transmitted from a radio or television station.
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of or relating to broadcasting.
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cast abroad or all over an area, as seed scattered widely.
adverb
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so as to reach the greatest number of people by radio or television.
The vital news was sent broadcast to inform the entire nation.
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so as to be cast abroad over an area.
seed sown broadcast.
verb
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to transmit (announcements or programmes) on radio or television
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(intr) to take part in a radio or television programme
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(tr) to make widely known throughout an area
to broadcast news
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(tr) to scatter (seed, etc) over an area, esp by hand
noun
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a transmission or programme on radio or television
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( as modifier )
a broadcast signal
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the act of scattering seeds
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( as modifier )
the broadcast method of sowing
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adjective
adverb
Usage
What does broadcast mean? Broadcast means to transmit a television or radio program, as in The network broadcasted cartoons every Saturday morning. In this sense a broadcast can be a single TV or radio program, as in the 6 o’clock news broadcast. Broadcast also means to deliver a message on a transmitted program, as in The police broadcasted the press release on the evening news. More generally, broadcast means to spread something widely, as in She broadcasted her recent wedding engagement to all of her family members. Related to this sense, a broadcast can be news or something similar that you share widely, like your broadcast to your classmates about the A you got on the test. Broadcast also means to mistakenly make a next move obvious, as in The boxer broadcasted his punch with a flashy windup. Example: Coverage of the awards ceremony was the leading story on every news broadcast.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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broadcastsimple
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broadcastssimple
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have broadcastperfect
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have broadcastedperfect
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has broadcastperfect
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has broadcastedperfect
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am broadcastingprogressive
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are broadcastingprogressive
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is broadcastingprogressive
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have been broadcastingperfect progressive
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has been broadcastingperfect progressive
Past
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broadcastsimple
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broadcastedsimple
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had broadcastperfect
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had broadcastedperfect
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was broadcastingprogressive
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were broadcastingprogressive
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had been broadcastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of broadcast
First recorded in 1760–70; originally, broad (adverb) + cast, past participle of cast ( def. )
Explanation
To broadcast is to air a program, especially on TV or radio. It also means to tell people about something. If you paint your one true love’s name on your car, you broadcast your feelings to the whole world! The word broadcast used to have to do with spreading seed, but now it refers to spreading information. It can be a noun or verb — if you turn on the radio, you're hearing a broadcast, and the station is broadcasting that show. You don’t have to be in a studio to broadcast, though. Any time you let a lot of people know about something (whether they like it or not), you broadcast. When information is broadcast, it becomes widely known.
Vocabulary lists containing broadcast
Dirty Words: The Language of Gardening
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Journalism
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Academy Awards, List 2
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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.
See Examples For:
On “60 Minutes,” he will become the most prominent conservative voice on a broadcast news network.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
The combined companies would house two major movie and television studios, the CBS broadcast network, dozens of cable channels including CNN, and streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Before COVID, he was a regular on Live PD, the megapopular show on the A&E Network in which law enforcement officers broadcast live feeds of their work.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
The CGF is investing £100m of this, with the remainder coming from commercial revenue streams such as ticketing, sponsorship, broadcast rights and merchandise.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
When the BBC broadcast ends, he has trouble falling asleep.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters chose not to preview or promote the speech in the two prime hours leading up to it, and Ingraham refrained from mentioning it on her Friday, Monday and Tuesday broadcasts.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
The target of the Danish group's wrath is an advertising campaign that was "aired during recent, widely viewed global sporting broadcasts and on TikTok and Facebook, causing widespread confusion," it said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Reforms to media were a key campaign promise of Hungary's new Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who described the announcement as "the end of propaganda broadcasts".
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
There is, you may be surprised to learn, little evidence to suggest Americans are less well-informed about current events than they were when 75% of households watched one of the nightly news broadcasts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
He once built a radio using crystals instead of electricity to pick up broadcasts from Warsaw and Białystok and even Kraków.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
It’s hard to call it media because it’s not mass broadcasted, but this is content that is being consumed.
From Slate ● Mar. 22, 2026
While organizers deemed the two-day ceremony too far on the timeline to cancel, the red carpet prior to the broadcasted event was canceled.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2025
Over the years it has broadcasted in China, North Korea, communist Cuba and the former Soviet Union.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2025
The Kraken’s regular-season opener and finale are set to air on ESPN, part of 13 nationally broadcasted games.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
He, fortunately, understood English, recognized the discourse as that which Shaw had broadcasted the previous evening, realized the significance of what had happened, and sent a letter to the medical press about it.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
He would like to see more young South Asians shaping the future of broadcasting.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
At the launch, Kelly said it was a "delight for us all to be able to pass on our many years of broadcasting experience to the next generation of TV, radio and film makers".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
You’d think looking that way I would attract women, but maybe women are better at taking care of themselves and don’t go around broadcasting their need for company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Tolo is conducting—and broadcasting on social media—a home experiment aimed at mapping her biological data over the course of her menstrual cycle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
The group consists of six novelists and poets, four painters, five cameramen, two broadcasting technicians, fourteen Catholic priests, twelve Protestant ministers, five filmmakers, and more than one hundred journalists.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
