Broaden

How to spell broaden

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce broaden

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does broaden mean?

1. verbTo make or become wider, or to extend the range, scope, or variety of something.

Broaden in a sentence

• Travelling abroad can broaden your understanding of other cultures.

• The company hopes to broaden its customer base over the next year.

Where does broaden come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native English adjective 'broad', which comes from the Old English 'brad', meaning simply 'wide' or 'spacious'. That older form has close relatives across the Germanic family, including the Dutch 'breed' and the German 'breit', all carrying the sense of stretching out across a large surface. The verb 'broaden' is much younger than its root: the suffix '-en', which turns an adjective into a verb meaning 'to make or become' (as in 'harden', 'widen', and 'strengthen'), was attached to 'broad' only around the early 1700s. From the literal sense of making something physically wider, the meaning quickly extended to widening the mind, an outlook, or a range of options. The spelling trap is the unstressed second syllable: the 'e' before the 'n' is almost silent, so writers must remember it is 'broad' plus 'en', not 'brodden' or 'broaden' misheard as a single muffled ending.

How the word is built

• broad (Old English brad: wide)
• -en (verb suffix meaning 'to make or become')