widen

/ˈwaɪdn̩/

widen verb: to become wide or wider.

Verb

widen (third-person singular simple present widens, present participle widening, simple past and past participle widened)

(intransitive) To become wide or wider.
- His eyes widened as her negligee fell to the floor.
(transitive) To make wide or wider.
- The widening works include the rebuilding of the skew bridge near Northwood to take four tracks, and to enable the Rickmansworth Road to be widened to 60 ft.; […].1959 November, “Notes and News: Harrow-Rickmansworth Widening”, in Railway Magazine, page 802
- But he still saw his side produce a rousing display which owed much to their lauded prowess from set-pieces, despite Uefa regulations meaning the pitch had to be widened and, in the process, the run-up area for Delap's long throws reduced.2011 September 29, Tom Rostance, “Stoke 2 - 1 Besiktas”, in BBC Sport
(transitive) To let out clothes to a larger size.
- She widened his trousers for him.
(transitive) To broaden or extend in scope or range.
- The police widened their enquiries.
- While the primary focus of the Sexual Orientation Committee had been to lobby for gay rights legislation, the new Task Force hopes to widen its activities. The Task Force ― in addition to lobbying — hopes to function as an "umbrella organization," facilitating communication between the state's many...1976 December 18, “Connecticut Task”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 25, page 2
(transitive) To convert to a data type that can hold a larger number of distinct values.
- to widen a short variable to an int variable
Antonyms:

narrow

Proper noun capitalized: Widen

Widen (plural Widens)

A surname from Swedish.

widen meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Malayalam

widen in Tamil

to widen, broaden, extend: அகற்று akaṟṟu

widen in Marathi

to become wider: रुंद होणे runda hoṇe
to make wider: रुंदावणे rundāvṇe, रुंद करणे runda karṇe

widen in Urdu

چوڑا کرنا, کشادہ کرنا

widen in Malayalam

അകലപ്പെടുത്തുക, വീതികൂട്ടുക, അധികമാക്കുക, വിസ്തൃതമാക്കുക

More languagesFewer languages

widen in Kannada: ಅಗಲಿಸು, ಹಿಗ್ಗಲಿಸು
widen in Punjabi: ਚੌਡ਼ਾ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
widen in Odia: ଓସାରିବା osāribā
widen in Assamese: বহলোৱা boholüa
widen in Nepali: फराकिलो गर्न

Examples of widen in a sentence

While the primary focus of the Sexual Orientation Committee had been to lobby for gay rights legislation, the new Task Force hopes to widen its activities.1976 December 18, “Connecticut Task”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 25, page 2:
Correspondent Gerardo Arreola interviewed Castro Espín for the Jan. 9, 2006, issue of La Jornada about the move to widen rights for transsexuals.2007 August 6, Leslie Feinberg, “Cuba's CENESEX proposes ground-breaking transsexual rights”, in Workers World:

All 40 example sentences with widen

Synonyms of widen

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of widen

Forms of widen

Verb
third-person singular present	widens
present participle	widening
past participle	widened
past	widened
Proper noun
plural	Widens

Past tense of widen: widened

Origin of widen

PIE word *dwóh₁ From wide + -en (verbal suffix).

Borrowed from Swedish Widén.

Words formed from widen

Phrases with widen

widen someone's horizons

Words that rhyme with widen

Questions about widen

What does widen mean?: Widen means to become wide or wider.
What is widen in Tamil?: Widen in Tamil is அகற்று (akaṟṟu). See Widen meaning in Tamil.
How do you use widen in a sentence?: While the primary focus of the Sexual Orientation Committee had been to lobby for gay rights legislation, the new Task Force hopes to widen its activities.
What part of speech is widen?: Widen can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce widen?: Widen is pronounced /ˈwaɪdn̩/.
What is the past tense of widen?: The past tense of widen is widened.

Words near widen in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-widen.wav.

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