Skip to main content

distended

dis·tend·edUK /dɪˈstɛndɪd/adjective, verb

distended is spelled D-I-S-T-E-N-D-E-D: 9 letters and 3 syllables (dis·tend·ed). It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 65,114th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, distended means “Extended or expanded, as from internal pressure; swollen” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in distended?

Letters9: D-I-S-T-E-N-D-E-D
Syllables3: dis·tend·ed
In writingabout once in every 5 million words; the 65,114th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is distended?

Distended appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 65,114th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce distended?

  • UK /dɪˈstɛndɪd/

Distended has 3 syllables, split dis·tend·ed in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-distended.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of distended

  • more distended comparative
  • most distended superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does distended mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Extended or expanded, as from internal pressure; swollen.

  2. 2

    gravid.

verb

  1. 1

    simple past and past participle of distend (a form of distend)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Distended in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germangebläht (extended or expanded), aufgetrieben, schwanger ((biology) gravid)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does distended come from?

Past participle of distend.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after distended