Word.ws English Dictionary

wider

UK/ˈwaɪdə//ˈwaɪdɚ/

wider is the comparative form of wide.

Meaning of wide

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.
  2. Large in scope.
    • The inquiry had a wide remit.
  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.
  6. (dated) Made, as a vowel, with a less tense, and more open and relaxed, condition of the organs in the mouth.

See all 16 meanings of wide

Origin of wider

From Middle English widder, widdur, widere, from Old English widdra; equivalent to wide + -er.

Phrases with wider

Words that rhyme with wider

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wider

What is wider the comparative form of?
Wider is the comparative form of wide.
How do you pronounce wider?
Wider is pronounced /ˈwaɪdɚ/ (US).

Words near wider in the dictionary

  1. widens
  2. widens someone's horizons
  3. widens up
  4. wideout
  5. wideouts
  6. wider
  7. wider open
  8. wider-spread
  9. widereaching
  10. widershins
  11. widerspread

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wider (page history and authors); wide (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-wider.wav.

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