Skip to the word

Added 3 October 2026

wide

/waɪd/ adjective

In Latin: lātus Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about wide at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Having a large physical extent from side to side.
We walked down a wide corridor.
Large in scope.
The inquiry had a wide remit.
Overweight, obese.

adverb

Extensively.
He travelled far and wide.
Completely.
He was wide awake.
Away from or to one side of a given goal.
The arrow fell wide of the mark.

noun

A ball that passes so far from the batsman that the umpire deems it unplayable; the arm signal used by an umpire to signal a wide; the extra run added to the batting side's score

Origin

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”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word