Widen

//ˈwaɪdn̩// name, verb

name, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To become wide or wider. intransitive

    "His eyes widened as her negligee fell to the floor."

  2. 2
    become broader or wider or more extensive wordnet
  3. 3
    To make wide or wider. transitive

    "But he still saw his side produce a rousing display which owed much to their lauded prowess from set-pieces, despite Uefa regulations meaning the pitch had to be widened and, in the process, the run-up area for Delap's long throws reduced."

  4. 4
    make wider wordnet
  5. 5
    To let out clothes to a larger size. transitive

    "She widened his trousers for him."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    make (clothes) larger wordnet
  2. 7
    To broaden or extend in scope or range. transitive

    "The police widened their enquiries."

  3. 8
    extend in scope or range or area wordnet
  4. 9
    To convert to a data type that can hold a larger number of distinct values. transitive

    "to widen a short variable to an int variable"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Swedish.

Synonyms

All synonyms
broadenbroadenaccrueaccumulateadd toadvance

Example

More examples

"Television helps us widen our knowledge."

Etymology

Etymology 1

PIE word *dwóh₁ From wide + -en (verbal suffix).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Swedish Widén.

Related phrases

widen uplet out

More for "widen"

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