wider
- 1Comparative of wide.
The new highway is much wider than the country lane it replaced.
Engineers chose a wider span for the bridge to ease congestion.
Note
An old comparative, not a modern coinage: Middle English widder, from Old English widdra, built on the pattern wide + -er. It carries over the senses of wide beyond the physical one, so a wider road and a wider inquiry are equally natural. Like most one-syllable adjectives it takes -er rather than more, and the final e of wide simply absorbs the suffix.
- 2Comparative of wide.
The dentist asked her to open her mouth wider during the exam.
The gate swung wider as the truck pushed against it.
Note
Here the comparison is of how far something opens, spreads or strays. Its commonest partners are verbs of opening, as in open your mouth wider. It can also measure a miss, so a shot that goes wider than the last lands farther to one side of its goal. It shares its spelling and history with the adjective. Position after a verb usually tells them apart.
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Origin
From Middle English widder, from Old English widdra; it is simply "wide" combined with the comparative ending "-er".