wide
/waɪd/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.96 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
Operating at the side of the playing area.
adj
On one side or the other of the mark; too far sideways from the mark, the wicket, the batsman, etc.
Example Sentences
- "We walked down a wide corridor."
- "Over a wider region either side of the path of totality, a partial eclipse is seen."
- "Former Vice President Joe Biden's lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for president has rebounded, and now stands at its widest margin since April, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS."
- "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."
- "Three-way girls offered the widest array of services. One twenty-two-year-old prostitute declared to an undercover vice investigator in New York City, "I am a three-way girl.""
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /waɪd/
- British English: /waɪd/
Usage
Inflected Forms
wider (comparative)
more wide (comparative)
widest (superlative)
most wide (superlative)
wides (plural)