expand my horizons

Meaning

1. 1phraseidiomfigurative

   to widen the range of things you know, understand or have experienced by trying new activities, places or ideas.

   Grammar: The possessive matches the subject: I expand my horizons, she expands her horizons.

   Patterns

   • expand your horizons by doing something
   • travel to expand your horizons

   I took a night class in pottery to expand my horizons.

   Living abroad really helped me expand my horizons.

   She joined the debate club to expand her horizons and meet new people.

Word forms

Common combinations

expand my horizons through travel

I hope to expand my horizons through travel next summer.

want to expand my horizons

I want to expand my horizons before choosing a career.

expand my horizons by reading

He expanded his horizons by reading widely.

broaden my horizons

A year of volunteering will broaden my horizons.

Synonyms and how they differ

broaden your outlook

Broaden your outlook is plainer and less idiomatic, so it works well in formal writing.

widen your perspective

Widen your perspective focuses on ways of thinking, while expand your horizons also covers new experiences.

try something new

Try something new is casual and does not claim any deeper learning.

Opposites

Word family

horizon noun

the line where sky meets land or sea

horizons noun

the limits of someone's knowledge or experience

expand verb

to grow bigger

expansion noun

the act of growing larger

horizontal adjective

flat and level like the horizon

Commonly confused: expand my horizons or broaden my horizons?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “expand my horizons”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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