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.
The scandal hit the headlines just over a month ago, with prosecutors looking into allegations of widespread market manipulation affecting the savings of some 455,000 individual investors.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
Although the rocks do contain substantial pore space, the researchers found that their widespread internal fractures were equally important to understanding how they retain and release heat.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2026
The region could see widespread rain, with a 10% to 20% chance of thunderstorms that could bring gusty, erratic winds and lightning by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
French government-bond yields rose sharply in opening trade following recent days of widespread violent demonstrations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
Today we know that the fall was not quite as rapid, dramatic, and widespread as earlier scholars believed.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
