-wide
1 Americanadjective
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having considerable or great extent from side to side; broad.
a wide boulevard.
- Antonyms:
- narrow
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having a certain or specified extent from side to side.
three feet wide.
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of great horizontal extent; extensive; vast; spacious.
the wide plains of the West.
- Synonyms:
- ample, comprehensive, boundless
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of great range or scope; embracing a great number or variety of subjects, cases, etc..
wide experience.
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open to the full or a great extent; expanded; distended.
to stare with wide eyes.
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apart or remote from a specified point or object.
a guess wide of the truth.
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too far or too much to one side.
a shot wide of the mark.
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Baseball. outside.
The pitch was wide of the plate.
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full, ample, or roomy, as clothing.
He wore wide, flowing robes.
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Phonetics. lax.
-
British Slang. shrewd; wary.
adverb
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to the full extent of opening.
Open your mouth wide.
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to the utmost, or fully.
to be wide awake.
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away from or to one side of a point, mark, purpose, or the like; aside; astray.
The shot went wide.
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over an extensive space or region, or far abroad.
scattered far and wide.
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to a great, or relatively great, extent from side to side.
The river runs wide here.
noun
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Cricket. a bowled ball that goes wide of the wicket, and counts as a run for the side batting.
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Archaic. a wide space or expanse.
adjective
-
having a great extent from side to side
-
of vast size or scope; spacious or extensive
-
-
(postpositive) having a specified extent, esp from side to side
two yards wide
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(in combination) covering or extending throughout
nationwide
-
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distant or remote from the desired point, mark, etc
your guess is wide of the mark
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(of eyes) opened fully
-
loose, full, or roomy
wide trousers
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exhibiting a considerable spread, as between certain limits
a wide variation
adverb
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over an extensive area
to travel far and wide
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to the full extent
he opened the door wide
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far from the desired point, mark, etc
noun
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(in cricket) a bowled ball that is outside the batsman's reach and scores a run for the batting side
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archaic a wide space or extent
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completely
Usage
What does -wide mean? The combining form -wide is used like a suffix meaning “wide,” in the sense of "throughout" or "in or to every part of." It is occasionally used in everyday and technical terms.The form -wide comes from Old English wīd, meaning “wide.”
Related Words
Wide, broad refer to dimensions. They are often interchangeable, but wide especially applies to things of which the length is much greater than the width: a wide road, piece of ribbon. Broad is more emphatic, and applies to things of considerable or great width, breadth, or extent, especially to surfaces extending laterally: a broad valley.
Other Word Forms
- overwide adjective
- overwidely adverb
- overwideness noun
- superwide adjective
- ultrawide adjective
- widely adverb
- wideness noun
- widish adjective
Etymology
Origin of wide
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English wīd; cognate with Dutch wijd, German weit, Old Norse vīthr
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.
Red-orange and fierce in color, high and wide in girth, the flames surged forward, consuming every house, school, church, business, vehicle, bush and bicycle in its path, animated by hundred mile an hour winds and dragged by the swirling clouds of smoke that flushed ahead and settled over our home.
From Los Angeles Times
Once again, the Vanguard S&P ETF had the biggest inflows by a wide margin, some $40.9 billion for the first two months of the quarter through Nov. 30 and $125 billion for 2025 to date.
From Barron's
In recent months, fake council posts have been spread far and wide - with one content creator even refusing to remove them as "it was making them money", according to one local authority.
From BBC
"A lot of artists can have a narrow viewpoint of love and relationships - but with Jim, there's this very wide viewfinder," says Radio 1's Jack Saunders.
From BBC
Professor Patané, who led the sensor development, explains what makes the results stand out: "This work combines for the first time the generation of femtosecond UV-C laser pulses with their fast detection by 2D semiconductors. Unexpectedly, the new sensors exhibit a linear to super-linear photocurrent response to pulse energy, a highly desirable property, laying the foundation for UV-C-based photonics operating on femtosecond timescales over a wide range of pulse energies and repetition rates."
From Science Daily
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.
