Widely

How to spell widely

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce widely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does widely mean?

1. adverbOver a large area, among many people, or to a great extent.

Widely in a sentence

• The new policy was widely discussed across the company.

• His novels are widely read in several countries.

Where does widely come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word is a native English formation, built from the Old English adjective 'wid', meaning 'broad' or 'spacious', combined with the adverb-forming suffix '-lice', which gave the modern '-ly'. The Old English root descended from a common Germanic ancestor that meant something extending far in space; related forms survive in German 'weit' and Dutch 'wijd', both still meaning 'wide'. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from purely physical breadth to figurative reach, so that something done 'widely' is spread across many places, people, or topics. The spelling kept the silent 'e' of 'wide' even when '-ly' was added, which is the one small point a writer has to remember, since the 'e' is not dropped here as it is in some other suffixes. By the Middle English period the adverb was firmly established in its modern sense of 'over a broad area' or 'to a great extent'.

How the word is built

• wide (broad, extending far)
• -ly (adverb suffix)