Disperse

//dɪˈspɜːs// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To scatter in different directions. intransitive, transitive

    "The Jews are dispersed among all nations."

  2. 2
    cause to separate wordnet
  3. 3
    To break up and disappear; to dissipate. intransitive, transitive
  4. 4
    cause to become widely known wordnet
  5. 5
    To disseminate. intransitive, transitive
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    distribute loosely wordnet
  2. 7
    To separate rays of light, etc., according to wavelength; to refract. intransitive, transitive
  3. 8
    separate (light) into spectral rays wordnet
  4. 9
    To distribute throughout. intransitive, transitive
  5. 10
    move away from each other wordnet
  6. 11
    to cause to separate and go in different directions wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Scattered or spread out.

    "Australia itself is a very wide and very disperse country, where the distance problems significantly affect also the "internal" customer-supplier chains."

Synonyms

All synonyms
break upbroadcastcirculatediffusedispeldistribute

Example

More examples

"The children blow dandelions to see the seeds disperse on the wind."

Etymology

From Middle French disperser, from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergō (“to scatter abroad, disperse”), from dis- (“apart”) + spargō (“to scatter”); see sparse.

Related phrases

disperse phasebreak up

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