ubiquitous
Americanadjective
adjective
Synonym Usage
See omnipresent.
Other Word Forms
Derived 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.
They’re ubiquitous across the Western world — an architectural infection spurred by capitalism’ need for generic efficiency borne of economies of scale.
From Salon • Jun. 8, 2026
One can be thought of as “ripple-out” inflation, where a shock to an economically ubiquitous input — like energy — reverberates throughout other goods and sectors that depend upon it.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 3, 2026
But despite Nvidia boss Jensen Huang's assertion that homes will soon contain AI supercomputers, the race is still on to develop an ubiquitous, one-size-fits-all intelligent device.
From Barron's • Jun. 1, 2026
Gum arabic, a resin that comes from the acacia tree, is as ubiquitous as it is unglamorous, virtually unknown despite being a vital ingredient in hundreds of products.
From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2026
To this day, it is ubiquitous in the slash-and-burn plots that surround every riverside hamlet.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
