Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - wide

~1 adj 1 »DISTANCE« a) measuring a large distance from one side to the other  (a hat with a wide brim)  (- opposite narrow1 (1)) b) five metres/two miles etc wide measuring five metres etc from one side to the other  (The door's three feet wide.) 2 »VARIETY« including or involving a large variety of different people, things, or situations  (a man with a wide experience of foreign affairs | wide range/variety/selection etc)  (We stock a wide range of furnishing materials.) 3 »IN MANY PLACES« usually before noun happening among many people or in many places  (The Whitewater scandal received wide publicity.) 4 wide difference/gap/variation etc a large and noticeable difference  (the ever-wider gap between the richest and poorest countries) 5 the wider issues/view/context etc the more general features of a situation, rather than the specific details  (We also have a wider aim)  (the restoration of democracy.) 6 »EYES« especially literary wide eyes are fully open, especially when someone is very surprised, excited, or frightened  (Her eyes grew wide in anticipation.) 7 give sb/sth a wide berth especially BrE to avoid someone or something 8 the big wide world especially spoken places outside the small familiar place where you live  (Soon you'll leave school and go out into the big wide world.) 9 nationwide/city-wide etc happening or existing all over the nation, city etc  (a country-wide problem)  (- see also widely, width)  ( USAGE NOTE: WIDE WORD CHOICE wide, broad, big, large, wide-ranging Wide is the most usual word to describe something that measures a long distance from one side to another a wide road/lake/doorway/entrance/staircase . You also use wide to express how much something measures from side to side The gap was only a few inches wide. Broad is often used about parts of the body broad shoulders/hips | a broad nose/forehead Broad often suggests that something is wide in a good or attractive way a broad sunny avenue running through the middle of the town Sometimes you may need to think whether you really mean wide or broad, or just big or large (=wide in all directions) a wide carpet/field or a large carpet/field Wide-ranging means covering a lot of different subjects or including a lot of different ideas a wide-ranging review/report/speech