Broadcasting

How to spell broadcasting

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce broadcasting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does broadcasting mean?

1. verbTransmitting programmes or signals to a wide audience by radio, television, or online.
2. nounThe business or activity of producing and transmitting radio and television programmes.

Broadcasting in a sentence

• verb

  The station has been broadcasting live football every weekend.

• noun

  She built a long career in broadcasting after leaving journalism.

• verb

  New rules govern the broadcasting of political adverts before an election.

• noun

  The degree course covers both broadcasting and digital media production.

Where does broadcasting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word grows out of the verb 'broadcast', which combines the Old English 'brad' (meaning 'wide' or 'spacious') with 'cast', a verb borrowed from Old Norse 'kasta' meaning 'to throw'. In its earliest sense, from the eighteenth century, broadcasting was an agricultural term: a farmer broadcast seed by scattering it widely across a field by hand, rather than planting it in neat rows. When radio arrived in the early twentieth century the same image was reused, because a transmitter scatters a signal widely across the air to anyone who can receive it. From there the meaning spread to television and then to streaming and online distribution. The vivid farming origin is a handy memory aid: you are throwing something 'broad', so the spelling keeps the whole word 'broad' followed by 'casting'.

How the word is built

• broad (wide)
• cast (to throw or scatter)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix)