Word.ws English Dictionary

broadcast

Syllables: broad·castUK/ˈbɹɔːd(ˌ)kɑːst/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈbɹoːd(ˌ)kɑːst/

broadcast adjective: cast or scattered widely in all directions; cast abroad.

Adjective

broadcast (comparative more broadcast, superlative most broadcast)

  1. Cast or scattered widely in all directions; cast abroad.
    • The seed was broadcast, not drilled.
    • And ſuch a double Sowing is of the greateſt Importance; for on the thick Growth of a Crop very much depends on the Bigneſs of it at Harveſt, becauſe, by ſuch a thick Growth, the Weeds are overcome and kept down from hurting the Oats; and, likewiſe, the Heats and Droughts kept the better out from...1744, William Ellis, “Of White Oats”, in The Modern Husbandman: Or, The Practice of Farming: As it is Now Carried On by the Most Accurate Farmers in Several Counties of England. For the Month of...
  2. Communicated, signalled, or transmitted to many people, through radio waves or electronic means.
    • For radio-transmission it has been found that certain passages of a rhythmical nature come out more clearly if wooden-headed sticks are used. The Timpani sometimes tend to sound blurred and even to have a blurring effect on the rest of the orchestral ensemble in broadcast music, when ordinary soft...1946, Ch[arles]-M[arie] Widor, “Percussion Instruments”, in Edward Suddard, transl., The Technique of the Modern Orchestra: A Manual of Practical Instrumentation, rev. and new edition, London: Joseph...
  3. (attributive) Relating to transmissions of messages or signals to many people through radio waves or electronic means.
    • The new limitations would still prohibit foreigners from wholly or directly owning broadcast licensees, allowing only indirect ownership through a stake in a controlling parent of a broadcast licensee.2013 November 14, Alina Selyukh, “U.S. FCC eases foreign investment limit for broadcast stations”, in Reuters, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2017

Adverb

broadcast (comparative more broadcast, superlative most broadcast)

  1. Widely in all directions; abroad.
    • [O]n reporting to Captain Thrasher he informed me that his orders were to take a detachment of forty men across the French Broad River and turn them loose to wander broadcast over the country as a protection to foraging parties of quartermasters and commissaries, […]1864 January 15, J[oseph] B[enjamin] Polley, “Some ‘Escape’ Stories”, in A Soldier’s Letters to Charming Nellie, New York, N.Y.; Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, published 1908, →OCLC...
    • The commercial traveller, a personage unknown to antiquity, is one of the striking figures created by the manners and customs of our present epoch. […] Our century will bind the realm of isolated power, abounding as it does in creative genius, to the realm of universal but levelling might...1885, Honoré de Balzac; [Katherine Prescott Wormeley, transl.], “The Illustrious Gaudissart [Scenes from Provincial Life.]”, in The Duchesse de Langeais: With An Episode under the Terror, The...
  2. (archaic) By having its seeds sown over a wide area.
    • When [rape is] grown broadcast the superphosphate may be incorporated with the surface soil by the harrow when preparing the ground for the seed or in covering the same.1893, Thomas Shaw, “Fertilizers for Rape”, in The Rape Plant: Its History, Culture, and Uses (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 11), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office...

Noun

broadcast (plural broadcasts)

  1. A transmission of a radio or television programme intended to be received by anyone with a receiver.
    • No one knows how long it will be until a broadcast from a studio in New York will be viewed in India as well as in Indiana, will be seen in the Congo as it is seen in Chicago. But as surely as we are meeting here today, that day will come; and once again our world will shrink.1961 May 9, Newton Minow, Television and the Public Interest
    • After nearly 40 years of continuous broadcast in Hong Kong, a 24-hour transmission of the BBC World Service will go silent in the former British colony, replaced with programming from China's state radio channel. The move by Radio Television Hong Kong, owned by the local government, was meant to...2017 August 13, Benjamin Haas, “Radio silence: 24-hour broadcast of BBC World Service dropped in Hong Kong: After four decades in the former British colony, BBC World Service is to be mostly replaced...
  2. A programme (bulletin, documentary, show, etc.) so transmitted.
    • The DJ was feeling nervous before his first national broadcast.
    • We interrupt this broadcast at the request of the police department to bring you the following special bulletin: The dead body of Miss Paula Canfield, missing student at Westlake University and daughter of the multi-millionaire Harold Canfield, has been found in the Arroyo Seco near the Colorado...1943, Wilfrid H. Pettitt, Nine Girls: A Play in Prologue and Two Acts, Chicago, Ill.: The Dramatic Publishing Company, →OCLC; republished Woodstock, Ill.: The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1971...
    Antonyms:
    narrowcast
  3. (archaic) The act of scattering seed; a crop grown from such seed.
    • Since my laſt, I went to ſee a piece of Daniel Fitch's, of Pluckley, Kent. He has two acres of broadcaſt, the oldeſt I have ever ſeen, ſown twenty years ago with barley, like clover.1785, W. Belcher, “Observations on Lucerne”, in Arthur Young (agriculturist), editor, Annals of Agriculture, and Other Useful Arts, volume III, number 18, London: Printed for the editor, and sold by...
    • It was stated by Mr. Miller, that the common method was, formerly, to sow the barley-seed with a broadcast at two sowings; the first being harrowed in once, but the second not until the seed is buried; […]1807, “BARLEY”, in The Complete Farmer; or, General Dictionary of Agriculture and Husbandry: Comprehending the Most Improved Methods of Cultivation; the Different Modes of Raising Timber, Fruit, and...

Verb

broadcast (third-person singular simple present broadcasts, present participle broadcasting, simple past and past participle broadcast or (common, but sometimes proscribed) broadcasted)

  1. (transitive) To transmit a message or signal through radio waves or electronic means.
    • When the boys reached the business section of Bayport they found that Jackley's confession had already become known. The local radio station had broadcast it in the afternoon news program and people everywhere were discussing it.1927 June 1, Franklin W. Dixon [pseudonym: Leslie McFarlane], “A Surprise”, in The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys; no. 1), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC
    • Practicing vocational service to the limit of one's vision makes a difference whether an employer regards his employees as "robots or human beings"; it makes a difference in the kind of advertisements he publishes or broadcasts; it makes a difference how he reacts under pressure from a competitor...1967 January, “Four Avenues of Service”, in Adventure in Service (Pamphlet [Rotary International]; 52), Evanston, Ill.; Zurich: Rotary International, →OCLC, page 69
    Synonyms:
    air, transmit, send
    Antonyms:
    narrowcast
  2. (transitive) To transmit a message over a wide area.
    • The break with imperialism and the liberation of Russia from the predatory war, the publication of the secret treaties and the solemn abrogation of the policy of seizing foreign soil, the proclamation of national freedom and the recognition of the independence of Finland, the declaration of Russia...[1934], Joseph Stalin, “The October Revolution and the National Question”, in The October Revolution: A Collection of Articles & Speeches (Marxist Library), London: Martin Lawrence, →OCLC, section...
    • However, truth and lies can usually be confirmed or denied by speaking with eyewitnesses of events in order to verify what took place. The amount of time separating the event in question from when it was broadcasted also makes a difference.2014, Greg[ory J.] Monette, The Wrong Jesus: Fact, Belief, Legend, Truth ... Making Sense of What You’ve Heard, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN...
    1. (specifically, transitive) To send an email in a single transmission to a (typically large) number of people.
      • Urban legend has it that someone is monitoring all those e-mails broadcast from your work address. Hard to imagine a more boring job but the truth is, and I shouldn't have to tell people this, the record of those e-mails is in a server somewhere and it can be monitored.2016, Richard A. Moran, “That Permanent Record”, in The Thing about Work: Showing Up and Other Important Matters: A Worker’s Manual, Brookline, Mass.: Bibliomotion, →ISBN
  3. (intransitive) To appear as a performer, presenter, or speaker in a broadcast programme.
    • She [Françoise Dolto] is most well known in France for her broadcasts on France-Inter, Lorsque l'enfant parait; she broadcasted for twelve minutes every day of the week for two years, answering parents' questions.2009, Sian Morgan, “Françoise Dolto: A Biography”, in Guy Hall, Francoise Hivernel, Sian Morgan, editors, Theory and Practice in Child Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to the Work of Françoise Dolto...
  4. (archaic, transitive) To sow seeds over a wide area.
    • I ſhall content myſelf, […] to ſay that the ſeed ſhoud be ſown in the garden, or very good ground, in rows, or broadcaſt, and as ſoon as the plants are of the ſize of a gooſe-quill, to be tranſplanted in rows of eighteen inches diſtance, and eighteen inches apart, one plant from the other: […]1789, Thomas Boothby Parkyns, “Some Account of the Racine de Disette, or Root of Scarcity, of Its Utility, and the Mode of Treating It; from a Letter of Thomas Boothby Parkyns, Esq., Addressed to the...
    • I wanted to grow my own cut flowers for the big day so three months earlier I broadcasted an annual seed mix across a few recently cleared borders.2013 November 9, Sarah Price, “Breathing new life into an old garden [print edition: New life, old garden]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), London, archived from the original on 15 May 2016...

broadcast meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

broadcast in Hindi

transmission of a radio or television programme
प्रसारण prasāraṇ
to transmit a message or signal through radio waves or electronic means
प्रसारित करना prasārit karnā, ब्राडकास्ट करना brāḍkāsṭ karnā, प्रचारित करना pracārit karnā

broadcast in Tamil

ஒலிபரப்பு, அலைபரப்பு, தகவல்பரப்பு, தரவுபரப்பு

broadcast in Marathi

cast or scattered widely
मुठीने पेरलेले muṭhīne perlele
communicated, signalled, or transmitted through radio waves or electronic means
ब्रॉडकास्ट केलेले brŏḍkāsṭa kelele, प्रसारित केलेले prasārit kelele
transmission of a radio or television programme
प्रसारण prasāraṇ, ब्रॉडकास्ट brŏḍkāsṭa
act of scattering seed
मुठीची पेरणी muṭhīcī perṇī

broadcast in Urdu

programme transmitted
نَشْرِیَہ naśriya
transmission of a radio or television programme
نَشْرِیَہ naśriya
to transmit a message or signal through radio waves or electronic means
نشر کرنا naśar karnā
More languagesFewer languages
broadcast in Bengali
সম্প্রচার śomprocar
broadcast in Malayalam
പ്രക്ഷേപണം ചെയ്യുക, വിത്തു വിതയ്ക്കുക
broadcast in Kannada
ಕಳಹಿಸು, ಹರಡು, ಚೆಲ್ಲು
broadcast in Punjabi
ਪਰਸਾਰਨ parsāran
broadcast in Arabic
بَرْنَامَج barnāmaj, تَلْفَزَة talfaza, إِذَاعَة ʔiḏāʕa, بَثّ baṯṯ
broadcast in Malay
siaran, siarkan
broadcast in Indonesian
siaran
broadcast in Thai
รายการ raai-gaan, โปรแกรม bproo-grɛm, การแพร่ gaan-prɛ̂ɛ, ถ่ายทอด tàai-tɔ̂ɔt
broadcast in Vietnamese
phát sóng, phát thanh, quảng bá
broadcast in Myanmar
အသံလွှင့် a.samhlwang.

Examples of broadcast in a sentence

  • There must be action on and participation in broadcast methods of public education, face to face, in groups, or by use of the mails.1931 June, M. A. Mattoon, “Application of Methods to Minimize Human Risks and Physical Dangers”, in Fire Handbook: Region Seven: United...
  • A special letter of warning against the ravages of the potato-tuber moth in the shape of a press notice has been sent broadcast to newspapers, as well as to others, throughout the country.1913, F[rank] H[urlbut] Chittenden, “Protection of the Fall Crop and Seed Potatoes”, in The Potato-tuber Moth (U.S. Department of...
  • The TV is broadcasting a FUZZY PICTURE that shows the weatherman from WVII, the Bango ABC affiliate.1999 February, Stephen King, Storm of the Century, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, act 3, page 175:
  • Broadcast on radio station WPRO, Providence, the drama frightened listeners across the state.2005, Robert E. Bartholomew, “Introduction”, in H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The War of the Worlds, New York, N.Y.: Cosimo Books, →ISBN, page...

All 40 example sentences with broadcast

Synonyms of broadcast

Antonyms

Forms of broadcast

Adjective
comparativemore broadcast
superlativemost broadcast
Adverb
comparativemore broadcast
superlativemost broadcast
Noun
pluralbroadcasts
Verb
third-person singular presentbroadcasts
present participlebroadcasting
past participlebroadcast
pastbroadcast
past participle common error-unknown-tag proscribed sometimesbroadcasted
past common error-unknown-tag proscribed sometimesbroadcasted

Past tense of broadcast: broadcast

Plural of broadcast: broadcasts

Origin of broadcast

From broad + cast. First attested in the mid 18th century, in the agricultural use of spreading seeds.

Words formed from broadcast

Phrases with broadcast

Questions about broadcast

What does broadcast mean?
Broadcast means cast or scattered widely in all directions; cast abroad.
What is broadcast in Hindi?
Broadcast in Hindi is प्रसारण (prasāraṇ), प्रसारित करना (prasārit karnā), ब्राडकास्ट करना (brāḍkāsṭ karnā). See Broadcast meaning in Hindi.
How do you use broadcast in a sentence?
There must be action on and participation in broadcast methods of public education, face to face, in groups, or by use of the mails.
What part of speech is broadcast?
Broadcast can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce broadcast?
Broadcast is pronounced /ˈbɹɔːd(ˌ)kɑːst/ (UK).

Words near broadcast in the dictionary

  1. Broadbottom
  2. Broadbridge
  3. broadbrim
  4. broadbrimmed
  5. broadbrims
  6. broadcast
  7. broadcast delay
  8. broadcast delays
  9. broadcast jockey
  10. broadcast jockeys
  11. broadcast radiation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broadcast (page history and authors); broadcast (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); broadcast (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); broadcast (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪਰਸਾਰਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-broadcast.ogg, en-ca-broadcast.ogg.

Cite this entry: “broadcast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/broadcast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.