Broadcast

How to spell broadcast

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce broadcast

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does broadcast mean?

1. verbTo transmit a programme or signal by radio, television, or the internet to a wide audience.
2. nounA radio or television programme, or a single transmission of one.

Broadcast in a sentence

• verb

  The station will broadcast the match live on Saturday afternoon.

• noun

  The morning broadcast covered the storm warnings in detail.

• verb

  Local councils now broadcast their meetings online for residents to follow.

• noun

  Millions tuned in to the live broadcast of the ceremony.

Where does broadcast come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word is a compound of two old English elements. The first part, broad, comes from the Old English brad, meaning 'wide' or 'extending far in every direction'. The second part, cast, was borrowed from Old Norse kasta, meaning 'to throw', and it is the same word used when you cast a fishing line or cast a stone. Put together, to broadcast literally meant to throw seed widely by hand, scattering it across a field rather than planting in neat rows; this agricultural sense was common from the 1700s. When radio arrived in the early twentieth century, the image of scattering something widely was the perfect metaphor for sending a signal out to many listeners at once, and broadcast quickly took on its modern transmission meaning. Knowing the seed-scattering origin helps with the spelling: it is plainly broad plus cast, with no hidden letters.

How the word is built

• broad (wide, far-reaching)
• cast (to throw or scatter)