Word.ws English Dictionary

wide-spread

wide-spread is the alternative spelling of widespread.

Meaning of widespread

Adjective

widespread (comparative more widespread or (rare) widerspread, superlative most widespread or (rare) widestspread)

  1. Affecting, or found throughout, a large area (e.g. the entire land or body); broad in extent; widely diffused.
    • widespread belief
  2. (uncommon) Spread far apart.
    • Women with knee-length silk stockings, sitting with widespread legs on sunwashed green benches1964, Evan Hunter, Buddwing

Forms of wide-spread

comparativemore wide-spread
comparativewider-spread
superlativemost wide-spread
superlativewidest-spread

Questions about wide-spread

What is wide-spread the alternative spelling of?
Wide-spread is the alternative spelling of widespread.

Words near wide-spread in the dictionary

  1. wide-ons
  2. wide-ranging
  3. wide-rangingly
  4. wide-reaching
  5. wide-scale
  6. wide-spread
  7. wide-wasting
  8. wideawake
  9. wideawake hat
  10. wideawake hats
  11. wideawakes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wide-spread (page history and authors); widespread (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: “wide-spread.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wide-spread. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.