Diffuse

//dɪˈfjuz// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To spread (something) over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means. transitive

    "The small window diffuses light throughout the room."

  2. 2
    cause to become widely known wordnet
  3. 3
    To be spread over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means. intransitive

    "Food coloring diffuses in water."

  4. 4
    spread or diffuse through wordnet
  5. 5
    move outward wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Everywhere or throughout everything; not focused or concentrated.

    "Such a diffuse effort is unlikely to produce good results."

  2. 2
    Wordy; verbose.
Adjective
  1. 1
    spread out; not concentrated in one place wordnet
  2. 2
    lacking conciseness wordnet
  3. 3
    (of light) transmitted from a broad light source or reflected wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
circulatediffuseddistributedpermeateprolixabounding

Example

More examples

"Layla tried to diffuse the situation."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle French diffuser, from Latin diffūsus, past participle of diffundere, from dis- + fundere.

Etymology 2

From Middle English *diffuse (attested in adverb diffuseli), from Latin diffūsus.

Related phrases

diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosisdiffuse large B-cell lymphomadiffuse parenchymal lung diseaseultra-diffuse

More for "diffuse"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.