expand
verb
Simple meaning
Become larger in size or volume or quantity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkspandSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪksˈpænd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Become larger in size or volume or quantity
transitive
To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open.
intransitive
To change or grow from smaller to larger in form, number, or size.
transitive
To increase the extent, number, volume or scope of (something).
Grow vigorously
transitive
To express (something) at length and/or in detail.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Become larger in size or volume or quantity
Used this way, expand is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use expand
- “Expand the house by adding another wing.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Increase in size, volume or significance.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Increased in extent or size or bulk or scope.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Adding information or detail.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.