wide

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
8
Words With Friends
8
Letters
4
Pronunciation
/waɪd/
See all 2 pronunciations
/waɪd/ · /wɑed/

Definition of wide

16 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Having a large physical extent from side to side.
    “We walked down a wide corridor.”
    “Over a wider region either side of the path of totality, a partial eclipse is seen.”
    “Former Vice President Joe Biden's lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for president has rebounded, and now stands at its widest margin since April, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.”
See all 16 definitions

adj

  1. Having a large physical extent from side to side.
    “We walked down a wide corridor.”
    “Over a wider region either side of the path of totality, a partial eclipse is seen.”
    “Former Vice President Joe Biden's lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for president has rebounded, and now stands at its widest margin since April, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.”
  2. Large in scope.
    “The inquiry had a wide remit.”
    “The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.”
    “Three-way girls offered the widest array of services. One twenty-two-year-old prostitute declared to an undercover vice investigator in New York City, "I am a three-way girl."”
    “Lizzo, who is known for messages of self-love and wider acceptance, has recently said as much as she shared that she is encouraging a stance of body neutrality for herself and others.”
  3. (derogatory, humorous, slang)Overweight, obese.
  4. Operating at the side of the playing area.
    “That team needs a decent wide player.”
  5. On one side or the other of the mark; too far sideways from the mark, the wicket, the batsman, etc.
    “Two balls before lunch, he bowled a wide.”
    “Too bad! That was a great passing-shot, but it's wide.”
    “Surely he shoots wide on the Bow-Hand.”
    “I was but two bows wide.”
  6. (dated)Made, as a vowel, with a less tense, and more open and relaxed, condition of the organs in the mouth.
  7. (Northern-England, Scotland, archaic)Vast, great in extent, extensive.
    “The wide, lifeless expanse.”
  8. (obsolete)Located some distance away; distant, far.
    “Mr Hunt's house, you know, lies wide from Harlowe-place.”
    “the contrary [being] so wide from the truth of Scripture and the attributes of God”
  9. (obsolete)Far from truth, propriety, necessity, etc.
    “And I trust anon by the help of an infallible guide, to perfect such Prutenic tables, as shall mend the astronomy of our wide expositors.”
    “But I tell you, it is farre wyde, that the people haue ſuche iudgmentes, the Byſhoppes they coulde laughe at it.”
    “How wide is all this long pretence!”
  10. Of or supporting a greater range of text characters than can fit into the traditional 8-bit representation.
    “a wide character; a wide stream”
  11. (British, slang)Sharp-witted.
    “But the first visitor to penetrate from the outside world proved to be Sergeant Williams; large and pink and scrubbed-looking; and for a little while Grant forgot about battles long ago and considered wide boys alive today.”

adv

  1. extensively
    “He travelled far and wide.”
  2. completely
    “He was wide awake.”
  3. away from or to one side of a given goal
    “The arrow fell wide of the mark.”
    “A few shots were fired but they all went wide.”
    “The Reds carved the first opening of the second period as Glen Johnson's pull-back found David Ngog but the Frenchman hooked wide from six yards.”
  4. So as to leave or have a great space between the sides; so as to form a large opening.
    “And with his knee the dore he opens wide”

noun

  1. 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

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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…

See full etymology

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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian widj (“wide”), Saterland Frisian wied (“wide”), West Frisian wiid (“broad; wide”), Central Franconian weck, weit, wick, wiet (“distant, far, wide”), Dutch wijd (“wide; large; broad”), German weit (“far; wide; broad”), Luxembourgish weit (“wide”), wäit (“far”), Yiddish ווײַט (vayt, “distant, far”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish vid (“wide”), Faroese and Icelandic víður (“wide”); also Breton gwez (“trees”), Cornish gwedh, gwëdh, gwydh, gwÿdh (“trees”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic fiodh (“timber, wood”), Manx fuygh (“timber, wood”), Welsh gwŷdd (“trees”), Latin dīvidō (“to divide, separate”), Latgalian vyds (“middle”), Latvian vidus (“center, middle”), Lithuanian vidùs (“interior, inside; inward”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B wätk- (“to distinguish, separate”). Related to widow.

Anagrams of wide

3 plays · some not in Scrabble

Words you can make from wide

8 playable · top: DEW (7 pts)

Best play dew 7 points

3-letter words

2 words

2-letter words

5 words

Hooks

3 extensions · 3 back

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