outreach
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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outreaches
plural
adjective
verb
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(tr) to surpass in reach
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(tr) to go beyond
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to reach or cause to reach out
noun
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the act or process of reaching out
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the length or extent of reach
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social welfare any systematic effort to provide unsolicited and predefined help to groups or individuals deemed to need it
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(modifier) (of welfare work or workers) propagating take-up of a service by seeking out appropriate people and persuading them to accept what is judged good for them Compare detached
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of outreach
Explanation
When medical care or other services are delivered to people in their community, it's through outreach. Your local animal shelter might conduct outreach programs to provide affordable vaccines to pet owners. When a person or organization reaches out to others, that's outreach. Churches, political groups, public health departments, and educators all offer outreach, extending some kind of helping hand or useful information to the wider community. You can also use this word to mean "exceed," like when demand for a new gaming console outreaches the available supply, or when a tennis player with longer arms can outreach an opponent by being able to hit a ball from farther away.
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:
Queen Camilla has been running her Queen's Reading Room project for five years, a kind of mega book club, with festivals and events and outreach projects, such as bringing books to homeless shelters.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
She works within its enhanced outreach support team, and said they were "absolutely inundated" with demand.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Within the council, outside of the council, amongst many of my allies and friends, that I didn’t need to if I had done that outreach process better.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
The museum has a staffer who led the outreach program: “She’s Jewish and Turkish. She speaks Turkish. But she says that people don’t want to deal with her anymore.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Hyacinth felt responsible for the failed outreach as she watched Jessie mope; after all, Jessie had wanted Hyacinth to do the first Beiderman mission.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
Efforts by Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia in recent days were similarly fruitless, people familiar with those outreaches said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Grace Methodist has been renting a former lodge hall for its services and has already started Bible studies and community outreaches, while also working to attract attendees from their neighborhood.
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2023
The 60-day period of footage shows people moving boxes from the basement storage area around the time of one of the outreaches from the Justice Department.
From New York Times ● Aug. 26, 2022
The comments also included dozens of submissions of the same form letter in support of the deal, almost all copying in SRB and spurred by text-message outreaches by the company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2020
Love, that outreaches to the humblest things; Work that is glad, in what it does and brings; And faith that soars upon unwearied wings.
From New Thought Pastels by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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.
