width

Everyday

1. Width is how wide something is, the distance from one side to the other. tree →
2. A width of a swimming pool is one swim across its short side. tree →

In the lessons

In school maths: a measure of a rectangle used with length for area and perimeter; «the length is twice the width». In everyday life: the width of a door, a road or a bed; swimming widths of the pool. Phrases: «in width», «the width of», «length and width».

Examples

• The width of the room is 4 meters. tree →
• The length is twice the width. tree →
• Find the area if the length is 6 and the width is 3. tree →
• The width is 2 cm less than the length. tree →
• The sofa will not fit through the width of the door. tree →
• I swam ten widths of the pool today. tree →
• Measure the width of your book with a ruler. tree →
• The road is 8 metres in width. tree →
• Its body was so big that it looked like the trunk of a large pine tree and it took up the whole width of the bridge. tree →

Note

From the adjective «wide» (wide, wider, widest). Width is usually the shorter side, length the longer. Maths: area = length × width; perimeter = 2 × (length + width). Trap: «twice the width» refers to the width, so find it first.