width

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   How wide something is; the distance from one side to the other.

   We measured the width of the room before buying the carpet.

2. 2
   noun

   A piece of fabric measured across its narrower side.

   She sewed two widths of cloth together to make the curtain.

PIE word *dwóh₁ From wide + -th (abstract nominal suffix), possibly by analogy with Old Norse vídd (“width”), though this is unlikely, as the word is not attested before the end of the 16th century and was historically unknown in Scots and the traditional dialect of Northern England, where one would expect Old Norse influence to be the strongest (these varieties traditionally employed wideness instead). Replaced Middle English wide, wyde (“width”).

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