spreading

/ˈspɹɛdɪŋ/

spreading is the present participle and gerund of spread.

Meaning of spread

spread (third-person singular simple present spreads, present participle spreading, simple past and past participle spread)

(transitive) To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.
- He spread his newspaper on the table.
(transitive) To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. simple past and past participle of spread
- I spread my arms wide and welcomed him home.
(transitive) To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area.
- I spread the rice grains evenly over the floor.
Synonyms:

sow, suffuse, pervade
(intransitive) To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated.
- Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.[…]One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may...2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
(transitive) To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present.
- The missionaries quickly spread their new message across the country.
Synonyms:

sweep
(intransitive) To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended.
- I dropped my glass; the water spread quickly over the tiled floor.
Synonyms:

sweep

spreading (countable and uncountable, plural spreadings)

The act by which something is spread.
- Small numbers [of meadowlarks] remain on farms in the southern counties throughout the winter, usually relying on fresh manure spreadings for food when snow covers the fields.1991, Samuel D. Robbins, Wisconsin Birdlife: Population & Distribution Past & Present, page 579

IPA/ˈspɹiːdɪŋ/

spreading (uncountable)

(debating slang) The act of spreading (speedreading).
- Chief among the strategies exploiting this rule was "spreading" (a combination of "speed" and "reading"), where debaters would rattle off arguments at a blistering pace. Their speeches often exceeded 300 words per minute. (A conversational pace is about 60 per minute.)2017 September 26, Jack McCordick, “The Corrosion of High School Debate—And How It Mirrors American Politics”, in America, New York, N.Y.: America Press Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
- The NSDA currently boasts more than one hundred and fifty thousand student participants (per affiliated team rosters), many of whom compete in Lincoln–Douglas or policy. The activities are distinct in structure—policy is two-on-two—but they operate similarly on the national circuit, and involve...2022 September, Tess McNulty, “Both Sides Now”, in Harper's Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Mar 2023

plural	spreadings

By surface analysis, spread + -ing.

Blend of speed + reading.

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does spreading mean?: Spreading means the act by which something is spread.
What is spreading the present participle and gerund of?: Spreading is the present participle and gerund of spread.
What part of speech is spreading?: Spreading is a noun.
How do you pronounce spreading?: Spreading is pronounced /ˈspɹɛdɪŋ/.
What is the plural of spreading?: The plural of spreading is spreadings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: spreading (page history and authors); spread (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spreading.wav.

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