disperse
/dɪˈspɝs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.30 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To separate rays of light, etc., according to wavelength; to refract.
Intransitive verb; Transitive verb
adj
Scattered or spread out.
Example Sentences
- "The Jews are dispersed among all nations."
- "The lippes of the wiſe diſperſe knowledge: but the heart of the fooliſh, doeth not ſo."
- "Australia itself is a very wide and very disperse country, where the distance problems significantly affect also the "internal" customer-supplier chains."
- "In particular, a very crisp quantifier such as “for all,” “there exists,” “at least 50 percent” tend to have less disperse weighting vectors while fuzzier quantifiers such as many tend to have a more disperse weighting vector."
Etymology
From Middle French disperser, from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergō (“to scatter abroad, disperse”), from dis- (“apart”) + spargō (“to scatter”); see sparse.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɪˈspɝs/
- British English: /dɪˈspɜːs/
Usage
Inflected Forms
disperses (present, singular)
dispersing (participle, present)
dispersed (participle, past)
dispersed (past)
more disperse (comparative)
most disperse (superlative)