diffuse

1. 1.

   spread out; not concentrated in one place

   “a large diffuse organization”

   Similardistributed
2. 2.

   (of light) transmitted from a broad light source or reflected

   Synonymssoftdiffused
3. 3.

   lacking conciseness

   “a diffuse historical novel”

   Similarprolix

Other forms of diffuse

past tense

diffused·

present participle

diffusing·

third person

diffuses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about diffuse

What does diffuse mean?

diffuse means "move outward". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in diffuse?

diffuse has 2 syllables: dif-fuse. The stress falls on "fuse". In IPA it is /dɪˈfjus/.

What is another word for diffuse?

Close synonyms include spread, spread out, fan out, permeate, pervade. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is diffuse a common word?

diffuse is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with diffuse?

1 word rhymes with diffuse. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.