Meaning & use
width
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
How far something stretches from one side to the other, measured across it.
Grammar: Often with a measure: a width of two meters.
Patterns
- the width of something
- in width
The width of the table is two meters.
The river narrows to half its width here.
Measure the width of the window before buying curtains.
nouncountable
A piece of fabric or other material measured across its full breadth.
Grammar: Used when sewing or hanging material: a width of cloth.
Patterns
- a width of something
She sewed three widths of cloth together for the curtain.
The wallpaper comes in a standard width.
noununcountablefigurative
Breadth in range or variety, in a figurative sense.
Grammar: Often 'width and depth': the width of her knowledge.
Patterns
- width of something
The course covers an impressive width of topics.
Readers admired the width of her learning.
Word forms
| plural | widths |
|---|
Common combinations
- the full width
- The sofa fills the full width of the wall.
- in width
- The path is one meter in width.
- width and length
- Measure both width and length.
- double width
- We bought double width fabric.
- half the width
- The new road is half the width of the old one.
Synonyms and how they differ
- breadth
- Breadth is more formal and often used figuratively, such as breadth of knowledge.
- wideness
- Wideness is rare and abstract, naming the quality of being wide.
- span
- Span measures the distance between two supports or ends, such as a bridge span.
- diameter
- Diameter applies only to circular shapes.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: width or with? width or depth?
width vs with
With is a preposition and sounds almost like width in fast speech.
width vs depth
Depth measures how far down or in something goes, not how far across.
Practice
To fit the sofa through the door, you need to know its ___.
Choose one answer.
Width is the side-to-side measurement that must fit the opening. The other options do not affect fitting through the doorway.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “width”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.