English Vocabulary – Distances and dimensions

Hello everyone!

Today we are going to learn all about words we use to talk about distances and dimensions. For example: “my swimming pool is very deep”.

Broad and wide and tall and high

Wide – extending a great distance from one side to the other : not narrow.
Ex: “Sarah’s room has great wide windows, there’s always a lot of light”

Broad – arge from one side to the other side.
Ex: “He has a broad knowledge of the education system”

We use “wide” more commonly than “broad”.

Tall – greater in height than the average person, building, etc.
Ex: “Paul is not very tall for his age”

High – rising or extending upward a great distance.
Ex: “The Alps are very high mountains”

We use “tall” for people and “high” for objects and things.

Deep and shallow

Deep –
Ex: “The sea is very deep here, so you can see a lot of different types of fish”

Shallow –
Ex: “The children were playing in the shallow end of the beach”

Derived words, phrases and compounds

Long

Length – the distance from one end of something to the other end : a measurement of how long something is.
Ex: “Measure the length of the wall, then we’ll know how much paper we need”

Lengthen – to become longer.
Ex: “You must try to lengthen my dress, it’s too short”

Short

Shorten – to become shorter.
Ex: “If you take that road, it’ll shorten your journey”

Wide

Width – the distance from one side of something to the other side : a measurement of how wide something is.
Ex: “The width of the classroom allowed for 10 chairs and tables”

Widening – to become wide or wider
Ex: “The hole in Tom’s shorts is widening, soon it’ll be huge”

Broad

Broaden – to make (something) wider or more general.
Ex: “Travel broadens the mind”

Broad-minded – willing to accept opinions, beliefs, or behaviors that are unusual or different from your own.
Ex: “Broad-minded people are open people, they like to experience new things and meet new people”

High

Height – a measurement of how tall a person or thing is : the distance from the bottom to the top of a person or thing.
Ex: “The height of that shelf is two metres”

Low

Lower – located below another or others of the same kind.
Ex: “Could you lower your prices? It’s a bit expensive”

Deep

Depth – a distance below a surface.
Ex: “The depth of the Amazon river is over 20 metres”

More dimension words:

Stretch – to continue for a specified distance: to extend over an area.
Ex: “The road stretches all the way down the hill”

Spreading – to become larger or to affect a larger area : to move into more places.
Ex: “The city is growing very fast and spreading all over the mountain”

Shrink – to make (something) smaller in amount, size, or value.
Ex: “The forest is shrinking due to deforestation”

Awesome! You’ve learnt a lot of new words today. Any questions? Can you think of more dimension vocabulary words?

Remember, words such as these will greatly help your ability to speak and understand advanced English. Why? Because sometimes particles of a sentence like “depth” and “wider” are used all the time…