widen
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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widens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
widened,
past participle, past
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widening
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
widensimple
-
widenssimple
-
have widenedperfect
-
has widenedperfect
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am wideningprogressive
-
are wideningprogressive
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is wideningprogressive
-
have been wideningperfect progressive
-
has been wideningperfect progressive
Past
-
widenedsimple
-
had widenedperfect
-
was wideningprogressive
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were wideningprogressive
-
had been wideningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of widen
Explanation
When you made something broader or more open, you widen it. In order to add bike lanes on your street, the city may need to widen it. Your friend's smile will undoubtedly widen when you hand him a chocolate cupcake — in other words, what starts as a grin gets bigger and wider. A scholar who widens her area of expertise adds subjects to her research, and your dinner options widen when two great new restaurants open in your town.
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:
The 101 has long been a bottleneck nightmare as it approaches Santa Barbara and the yearslong project to widen the freeway has only made it worse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Civic agencies are often reluctant to widen footpaths because they view carriageway space as sacrosanct.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Higher crude costs threaten to widen India’s import bill and push up inflation, and have punished the rupee, which has weakened more than 6% against the dollar this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
The report delivers a stark warning, too: "AI could widen gaps between countries, increase inequality within them, concentrate market power, weaken trust in public institutions, and create new risks for safety, rights, and social cohesion."
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
My eyes widen and I look over at my giant tub of hand sanitizer.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
But when that risk spikes, the spread quickly widens — as it did in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and again in 2022-23.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
It’s only made me realize that one of the great joys of owning a pet is that you develop your own way of communicating, in a way that widens your vocabulary.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2026
If the race for nuclear weapons widens and accelerates, the region will become more unstable, heightening risks for the entire world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
Neogen’s quarterly loss widens to $17 million but adjusted profit tops Wall Street estimates.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
The second widens it to a gaping hole.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
With William in the UK and Harry self-exiled in California, the gulf between the two has only widened.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
The additional ballots widened the slim lead Wahab held on election night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in England has widened.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The spread between the cost of producing a barrel of gasoline and the cost of the crude oil needed to produce it — known among traders as the “crack spread” — has widened sharply.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
Finally, her eyes widened and she looked up at Bork.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Fagan argued that there's a case for "widening" the tax base through some new approaches, such as environmental taxes.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The market is also seeing a widening structural divide within the new-energy car segment, with automakers increasingly shifting toward larger and higher-value models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
A combination of sales growth and widening profit margins is a good sign for any company.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
He had raised the dam’s height mid-construction, without widening the base to support the extra water pressure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
What if Pah was staring back at him, widening his enormous beak?
From "Hello, Universe" 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.
