Word.ws English Dictionary

carspreading

carspreading noun: a tendency toward making and buying larger and wider automobiles.

Noun

carspreading (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, informal, neologism) A tendency toward making and buying larger and wider automobiles.
    • If a car generates more potholes, takes up more space and poses more risk to others, then why even have it? Carspreading is a crisis we face in Britain. Our road vehicles are increasing in size as the more and more of us buy more SUVs of increasing dimensions and weight.2025 April 18, Emma Kay, “Status symbols get bigger, and so do issues they cause”, in Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds, page 21
    • SIR SADIQ KHAN is under pressure to tackle "carspreading" by hitting bigger vehicles in London with even higher taxes and parking fees. In a motion passed by the London Assembly, the mayor has been urged to write to the Government to demand higher vehicle excise duty for heavier vehicles and...2025 June 7, “Hit larger cars with higher taxes, Khan told”, in The Daily Telegraph, page 15

Examples of carspreading in a sentence

  • SIR SADIQ KHAN is under pressure to tackle "carspreading" by hitting bigger vehicles in London with even higher taxes and parking fees.2025 June 7, “Hit larger cars with higher taxes, Khan told”, in The Daily Telegraph, page 15:
  • Even the term “carspreading” suggests an element of inequality – of taking up an unfair amount of space.[2025 October 25, Alan Simpson, “Yes, we do need a war on cars. And that includes carspreading EVs”, in The Herald, Glasgow, page 6:

Origin of carspreading

From car + spreading.

Questions about carspreading

What does carspreading mean?
Carspreading means a tendency toward making and buying larger and wider automobiles.
How do you use carspreading in a sentence?
SIR SADIQ KHAN is under pressure to tackle "carspreading" by hitting bigger vehicles in London with even higher taxes and parking fees.
What part of speech is carspreading?
Carspreading is a noun.

Words near carspreading in the dictionary

  1. Carsonist
  2. Carsonists
  3. carspiel
  4. carspiels
  5. carsploitation
  6. carspreading
  7. Carss
  8. Carss Park
  9. Carstairs
  10. Carstairs Junction
  11. Carstarphen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carspreading (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.

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