spread
/spɹɛd/verb, noun
spread is spelled S-P-R-E-A-D. The wrong spelling people search most is spred: about 420 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Spread is a verb meaning “To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space”.
How many letters and syllables are in spread?
| Letters | 6: S-P-R-E-A-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 65 times per million words; the 1,636th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, spred, about 420 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell spread?
Spread is spelled S-P-R-E-A-D. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for spread in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is spread?
Spread appears 65 times per million words in written English, the 1,636th 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 spread?
- /spɹɛd/
As a verb (“To speedread; to recite one's arguments at an extremely…”): /spɹiːd/, /spɹid/.
Spread has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-spread.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with spread?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as spread from its last stressed vowel (/id/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: drapes, spader.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of spread
- spreads present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- spreading participle, present
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spread mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.
He spread his newspaper on the table.
- 2
To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. simple past and past participle of spread
I spread my arms wide and welcomed him home.
- 3
To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area.
I spread the rice grains evenly over the floor.
- 4
To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated.
- 5
To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present.
The missionaries quickly spread their new message across the country.
- 6
To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended.
I dropped my glass; the water spread quickly over the tiled floor.
- 7
To smear, to distribute in a thin layer.
She liked to spread butter on her toast while it was still hot.
- 8
To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter.
He always spreads his toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam.
- 9
To speedread; to recite one's arguments at an extremely fast pace.
noun
- 1
The act of spreading.
- 2
Something that has been spread.
- 3
A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading.
- 4
An expanse of land.
November 29, 1712, Andrew Freeport, a letter to The Spectator I have got a fine spread of improvable lands.
- 5
A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch.
- Can't wait till I get my own spread and won't have to put up with Joe Aguirre's crap no more.
- 6
A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread).
- 7
A large meal, especially one laid out on a table.
- 8
Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams.
- 9
An act or instance of spreading (speedreading).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spread in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | étaler , écarter , disperser, répandre, éparpiller , pâte à tartiner |
| German | verteilen, ausbreiten , spreizen, ausstrecken, strecken , ausstreuen |
| Portuguese | estender , espalhar, difundir , chimia , passar , espalhamento |
| Spanish | dispersar, esparcir , untar , propagación , cundir , difundir |
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 spread come from?
From Middle English spreden, from Old English sprǣdan (“to spread, expand”), from Proto-Germanic *spraidijaną (“to spread”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to strew, sow, sprinkle”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).