Meaning & use
broaden your horizons
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiomfigurative
To widen the range of your knowledge, experience, or interests by trying new things.
Grammar: The possessive changes with the subject: he broadened his horizons, not 'broadened your horizons'.
Patterns
- broaden your horizons by doing something
- broaden someone's horizons
Studying abroad was a great way to broaden her horizons.
If you want to broaden your horizons, try reading books from other countries.
The school trip broadened the students' horizons.
Word forms
| third person singular | broadens your horizons |
|---|---|
| past tense | broadened your horizons |
| -ing form | broadening your horizons |
Common combinations
- travel to broaden your horizons
- He traveled to broaden his horizons.
- help broaden horizons
- Volunteering can help broaden horizons.
- want to broaden your horizons
- If you want to broaden your horizons, learn a language.
- broaden someone's horizons
- The exchange program broadened our horizons.
Synonyms and how they differ
- expand your mind
- Focuses on thinking and ideas, while broaden your horizons suggests new experiences too.
- widen your outlook
- Is more formal and stresses attitude and perspective.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: broaden your horizons or broad horizon?
broaden your horizons vs broad horizon
A broad horizon describes someone's range already; broaden your horizons is the action of widening it.
Practice
Maya joined a language club to ___ her horizons.
Choose one answer.
The idiom is broaden your horizons, meaning to widen your experience. The other verbs do not form the idiom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “broaden your horizons”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.