Expand
verbTo become or make larger, fuller, or more extensive.
How to spell expand
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce expand
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does expand mean?
- verbTo become or make larger, fuller, or more extensive.
Expand in a sentence
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The company plans to expand into three new markets next year.
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Heat will cause the metal pipe to expand slightly.
Where does expand come from?
Language of origin: Latin
Expand comes from the Latin verb expandere, which means 'to spread out' or 'to stretch open'. That verb was built from the prefix ex-, meaning 'out', and the root pandere, meaning 'to spread' or 'to stretch'. The same pandere root also gave us 'expanse' and the dramatic verb 'expound', and it is distantly connected to the idea of opening something wide. English borrowed expand in the late 1400s, originally in the literal sense of spreading something flat or open, before the figurative meanings of growing, enlarging, or developing in detail became common. The spelling is mercifully regular: the single 'p' and the clean -and ending rarely trip writers up, since there is no hidden silent letter or doubled consonant.
How the word is built
- ex- (out)
- pand (from pandere: to spread, stretch)
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