rife

UK/ɹaɪf/

rife adjective: widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).

Adjective

rife (comparative rifer, superlative rifest)

Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).
- Smallpox was rife after the siege had been lifted.
- Rumors were rife that the factory was about to shut down.
Synonyms:

pandemic
Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful.
- Red deer are rife in these woodlands.
- Seeds are rife in a watermelon.
Synonyms:

filled
Full of (mostly unpleasant or harmful things).
- Many post-colonial governments were rife with lawlessness and corruption.
- They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating high.2013 May 15, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian
Synonyms:

fraught
(obsolete) Having power; active; nimble.
- What! I am rife a little yet.1661, John Webster, William Rowley, A Cure for a Cuckold

Adverb

rife (comparative more rife, superlative most rife)

Plentifully, abundantly.
- The snowdrops grow rife on the slopes of Mount Pembroke.

rife meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

rife in Malayalam

സർവ്വസാധാരണ, അതിക്രമിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന, നിറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്ന

rife in Kannada

ತೀವಿದ, ತುಂಬಿತುಳುಕುವ, ಆಗಾಗ ಉಂಟಾಗುವ, ಹರವಿನ, ಸರ್ವಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿರುವ, ಸರ್ವ ಸಾಧಾರಣವಾದ

Examples of rife in a sentence

Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal.1712, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies:
The 'denominational considerations' mentioned below relate, of course, to anti-Semitic feeling, which was already rife in Vienna during the last years of the nineteenth century.1900, Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey, The Interpretation of Dreams: Avon Books, page 170:
BRB engineers, it is known, have a warm regard for the Ventura range and speculation is rife that it may feature more widely in future BR dieselisation programmes.1964 May, R. K. Evans, “The Ventura—Paxman's high-speed engine”, in Modern Railways, page 329:

All 32 example sentences with rife

Synonyms of rife

Forms of rife

Adjective
comparative	rifer
superlative	rifest
Adverb
comparative	more rife
superlative	most rife

Origin of rife

From Middle English rife, from Old English rīfe, rȳfe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīb, from Proto-Germanic *rībaz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”), Dutch rijf (“abundant, copious”), Low German rive (“abundant, munificent”), Icelandic rífur (“rife, munificent”), Faroese ríviligur (“plentiful, abundant”), Faroese rívan (“abundantly”), Icelandic reifa (“to bestow”).

Words formed from rife

Words that rhyme with rife

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rife

What does rife mean?: Rife means widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).
What is rife in Tamil?: Rife in Tamil is சண்டை, மிகுதியான. See Rife meaning in Tamil.
How do you use rife in a sentence?: Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal.
What part of speech is rife?: Rife can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce rife?: Rife is pronounced /ɹaɪf/ (UK).

Words near rife in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: rife (page history and authors); rife (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rife (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rife (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rife (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

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

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