Word.ws English Dictionary

wide

/waɪd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/wɑed/

wide adjective: having a large physical extent from side to side.

Adjective

wide (comparative wider or more wide, superlative widest or most wide)

  1. Having a large physical extent from side to side.
    • We walked down a wide corridor.
    • Over a wider region either side of the path of totality, a partial eclipse is seen.1993, Jacqueline Mitton, The Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy, 2nd edition (paperback), Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 127
  2. Large in scope.
    • The inquiry had a wide remit.
    • The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015
  3. (derogatory, humorous, slang) Overweight, obese.
  4. Operating at the side of the playing area.
    • That team needs a decent wide player.
  5. On one side or the other of the mark; too far sideways from the mark, the wicket, the batsman, etc.
    • Two balls before lunch, he bowled a wide.
    • Too bad! That was a great passing-shot, but it's wide.
  6. (dated) Made, as a vowel, with a less tense, and more open and relaxed, condition of the organs in the mouth.
  7. (Northern England, Scotland, archaic) Vast, great in extent, extensive.
    • The wide, lifeless expanse.
  8. (obsolete) Located some distance away; distant, far.
    • Mr Hunt's house, you know, lies wide from Harlowe-place.1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXXXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn...
    • the contrary [being] so wide from the truth of Scripture and the attributes of God1654, H[enry] Hammond, Of Fundamentals in a Notion Referring to Practise, London: […] J[ames] Flesher for Richard Royston, […], →OCLC
  9. (obsolete) Far from truth, propriety, necessity, etc.
    • And I trust anon by the help of an infallible guide, to perfect such Prutenic tables, as shall mend the astronomy of our wide expositors.1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC
    • But I tell you, it is farre wyde, that the people haue ſuche iudgmentes, the Byſhoppes they coulde laughe at it.1549 April 22 (Gregorian calendar), Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “[27 Sermons Preached by the Ryght Reuerende Father in God and Constant Matir of Iesus Christe...
  10. Of or supporting a greater range of text characters than can fit into the traditional 8-bit representation.
    • a wide character; a wide stream
  11. (UK, slang) Sharp-witted.
    • But the first visitor to penetrate from the outside world proved to be Sergeant Williams; large and pink and scrubbed-looking; and for a little while Grant forgot about battles long ago and considered wide boys alive today.1951, Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, page 31

Adverb

wide (comparative wider, superlative widest)

  1. Extensively.
    • He travelled far and wide.
  2. Completely.
    • He was wide awake.
  3. Away from or to one side of a given goal.
    • The arrow fell wide of the mark.
    • A few shots were fired but they all went wide.
  4. So as to leave or have a great space between the sides; so as to form a large opening.
    • And with his knee the dore he opens wide1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, line 359

Noun

wide (plural wides)

  1. A ball that passes so far from the batsman that the umpire deems it unplayable; the arm signal used by an umpire to signal a wide; the extra run added to the batting side's score

wide meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

wide in Hindi

having a large physical extent from side to side
चौड़ा cauṛā

wide in Tamil

அகலமாக

wide in Marathi

रुंद

wide in Urdu

having a large physical extent from side to side
چوڑا cauṛā
More languagesFewer languages
wide in Bengali
প্রশস্ত prośosto
wide in Telugu
వెడల్పైన veḍalpaina
wide in Malayalam
ഉരു uru
wide in Kannada
ಅಗಲ, ಅಗಲು, ಅಗಲಿತ್ತು, ಅಗಲಿತು
wide in Punjabi
چوڑا cauṛā, ਚੌੜਾ cauṛā, ਦੀਰਘ dīragh
wide in Gujarati
પહોળું pahoḷũ
wide in Odia
ଓସାର osāra, ଓସାରିଆ osāriā, ଉତ୍କୃଷ୍ଟ utkruṣṭa, ଚଉଡ଼ା cauṛā
wide in Sanskrit
पृथु pṛthú
wide in Sinhala
පළල් paḷal
wide in Assamese
বহল bohol
wide in Nepali
फराकिलो, चौडा
wide in Tagalog
malapad
wide in Arabic
عَرِيض ʕarīḍ
wide in Malay
lebar
wide in Indonesian
lebar
wide in Persian
پهن pahn, گسترده gostarde, وسیع vasi', فراخ farâx
wide in Thai
กว้างใหญ่ gwâang-yài, กว้าง gwâang
wide in Vietnamese
rộng
wide in Myanmar
ကျယ် kyai

Examples of wide in a sentence

  • Three-way girls offered the widest array of services.2014, Jessica R. Pliley, Policing Sexuality, page 192:
  • Lizzo, who is known for messages of self-love and wider acceptance, has recently said as much as she shared that she is encouraging a stance of body neutrality for herself and others.2023 May 29, Madeline Holcombe, “Lizzo is teaching us about body neutrality. Here is what it means and how to get there”, in CNN:
  • The Reds carved the first opening of the second period as Glen Johnson's pull-back found David Ngog but the Frenchman hooked wide from six yards.2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC:

All 40 example sentences with wide

Synonyms of wide

Antonyms

Forms of wide

Adjective
comparativewider
comparativemore wide
superlativewidest
superlativemost wide
Adverb
comparativewider
superlativewidest
Noun
pluralwides

Origin of wide

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English wid, wyd, from Old English wīd (“wide, vast, broad, long; distant, far”), from Proto-Germanic *wīdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- (“to divide, separate”), a dissimilated univerbation from *dwi- (“apart, asunder, in two”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put, place”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian widj (“wide”), Saterland Frisian wied (“wide”), West Frisian wiid (“broad; wide”), Central Franconian weck, weit, wick, wiet (“distant, far, wide”), Dutch wijd (“wide; large; broad”), German weit (“far; wide; broad”), Luxembourgish weit (“wide”), wäit (“far”), Yiddish ווײַט (vayt, “distant, far”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish vid (“wide”), Faroese and Icelandic víður (“wide”); also Breton gwez (“trees”), Cornish gwedh, gwëdh, gwydh, gwÿdh (“trees”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic fiodh (“timber, wood”), Manx fuygh (“timber, wood”), Welsh gwŷdd (“trees”), Latin dīvidō (“to divide, separate”), Latgalian vyds (“middle”), Latvian vidus (“center, middle”), Lithuanian vidùs (“interior, inside; inward”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B wätk- (“to distinguish, separate”). Related to widow.

Words formed from wide

Phrases with wide

27 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with wide

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wide

What does wide mean?
Wide means having a large physical extent from side to side.
What is wide in Hindi?
Wide in Hindi is चौड़ा (cauṛā). See Wide meaning in Hindi.
How do you use wide in a sentence?
Three-way girls offered the widest array of services.
What part of speech is wide?
Wide can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce wide?
Wide is pronounced /waɪd/ (UK).

Words near wide in the dictionary

  1. Widdrington Village
  2. Widdringtons
  3. Widdup
  4. widduy
  5. widdy
  6. wide
  7. wide area network
  8. wide area networks
  9. wide awake
  10. wide berth
  11. wide berths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wide (page history and authors); wide (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wide (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഉരു (Malayalam) (page history and authors); wide (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); چوڑا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); પહોળું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଉତ୍କୃଷ୍ଟ (Odia) (page history and authors); පළල් (Sinhala) (page history and authors); wide (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wide.ogg, En-uk-wide.ogg, en-au-wide.ogg.

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