widening

«widening» in Mova's school dictionary: becoming or making something wider — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (widening — the act of making wider); verb form (widening — from widen, widens, widened, widening); adjective (widening)

meaning for a pupil

1) Widening means becoming or making something wider. tree →

2) A widening gap or problem is one that is getting bigger. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life it describes roads, rivers and eyes ("her eyes widening"). In news it describes growing gaps, like a widening gap between rich and poor. Phrases: road widening, widening gap, eyes widening.

examples

• The council is widening the road. tree →
• Her eyes were widening with surprise. tree →
• There is a widening gap between the two teams. tree →
• The river is widening as it nears the sea. tree →
• The road widening caused traffic jams. tree →
• The crack in the wall is widening. tree →

note

From widen (wide + -en); drop the e: widening. Similar -en verbs: lengthen, shorten, deepen, brighten.

In the corpora

• The Atlantic Ocean is a young ocean that started opening about 180 million years ago and is still widening.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «widening» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.