adjective
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extending over a wide area
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accepted by or occurring among many people
Etymology
Origin of widespread
Explanation
Widespread means far-reaching. For years, email was used only by computer programmers and technophiles. It was hard to imagine, back then, how widespread the phenomenon of digital communication would become. An idea that's widespread, is believed by many people, even if it's not true. A person such as Oprah, Gandhi, or Beyoncé, who has widespread popularity, is loved by many far and wide. A widespread disease is one that many people have — the flu epidemic of 1919 was deadly and widespread.
Vocabulary lists containing widespread
"The Civil Rights Movement"
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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"Laws are not the only way to boost immunization”: an editorial from Nature
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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.
That widespread distribution indicates that the interbreeding happened before Homo sapiens made their final major migration out of Africa and expanded around the planet.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
The quake caused widespread damage in the sweltering southwestern region, flattening homes, damaging bridges, triggering fires and leaving many without electricity and water.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
And no professional doctor’s association recommends widespread screening in the general population.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The mistake came to light after HIV/Aids expert Emily Bass shared a photograph of the slide on her Substack newsletter, prompting widespread criticism online.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Before the recent overseas expansion of Europeans speaking Indo-European languages, Austronesian was the most widespread language family in the world.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
