widen
/ˈwaɪdn̩/verb
widen is spelled W-I-D-E-N: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, widen means “To become wide or wider” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in widen?
| Letters | 5: W-I-D-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is widen?
Widen appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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 widen?
- /ˈwaɪdn̩/
Widen has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-widen.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of widen
- widens present, singular, he/she/it
- widening participle, present
- widened participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does widen mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To become wide or wider.
His eyes widened as her negligee fell to the floor.
- 2
To make wide or wider.
- 3
To let out clothes to a larger size.
She widened his trousers for him.
- 4
To broaden or extend in scope or range.
The police widened their enquiries.
- 5
To convert to a data type that can hold a larger number of distinct values.
to widen a short variable to an int variable
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Widen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 widen come from?
From wide + -en (verbal suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).