Word: spread Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English spreden, from Old English sprǣdan (“to spread, expand”), from Proto-Germanic *spraidijaną (“to spread”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- (“to strew, sow, sprinkle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spreede (“to spread”), West Frisian spriede (“to spread”), North Frisian spriedjen (“to spread”), Dutch spreiden (“to spread”), Low German spreden (“to spread”), German spreiten (“to spread, spread out”), Danish sprede (“to spread”), Norwegian spre, spreie (“to spread, disseminate”), Swedish sprida (“to spread”), Latin spernō, spargō, Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō), Persian سپردن (sepordan, “to deposit”), English spurn. Pronunciation: /spɹɛd/ 1. The act of spreading. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: No flower hath that kind of spread that the woodbine hath. 2. Something that has been spread. Labels: countable, uncountable 3. A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading. Labels: countable, uncountable 4. An expanse of land. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: November 29, 1712, Andrew Freeport, a letter to The Spectator I have got a fine spread of improvable lands. 5. A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: - Can't wait till I get my own spread and won't have to put up with Joe Aguirre's crap no more. 6. A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread). Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Linen shawls and spreads show up in secondhand clothing stores like those in the row on St. Marks Place in New York City. 7. A large meal, especially one laid out on a table. Labels: countable, uncountable 8. Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams. Labels: countable, uncountable, usually Example: Ferd liked to experiment with sandwich spreads ― the one he liked most was cream-cheese, olives, anchovy and avocado, mashed up with a little mayonnaise ― but Oscar always had the same pink luncheon-meat. 9. A set of multiple torpedoes launched on side-by-side, slowly-diverging paths toward one or more enemy ships. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Johnston, meanwhile, has managed to get within five miles of its target, and fires a full spread of ten torpedoes. Minutes later, at least two, possibly three, tear the bow off the hapless cruiser Kumano. First blood, unbelievably, therefore, goes to the Americans. 10. Food improvised by inmates from various ingredients to relieve the tedium of prison food. Labels: slang, uncountable 11. An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page. Labels: countable, uncountable 12. Two facing pages in a book, newspaper etc. Labels: countable, uncountable 13. A numerical difference. Labels: countable, uncountable 14. A measure of how far the data tend to deviate from the average. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The spread is usually measured using standard deviation and variance. 15. The difference between the wholesale and retail prices. Labels: countable, uncountable 16. The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity. Labels: countable, uncountable 17. The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity. Labels: countable, uncountable 18. The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity. Labels: countable, uncountable 19. An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies. Labels: countable, uncountable 20. The difference between bidding and asking price. Labels: countable, uncountable 21. The difference between the prices of two similar items. Labels: countable, uncountable 22. An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points. Labels: countable, uncountable 23. The surface in proportion to the depth of a cut gemstone. Labels: countable, uncountable 24. Excessive width of the trails of ink written on overly absorbent paper. Labels: countable, uncountable 25. The difference between the teams' final scores at the end of a sport match. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: College basketball games don't lack for gambling propositions—the moneyline, a straightforward wager on which team will win; the over-under gamble on the total number of points scored by both teams—but the most popular wager is the spread. The spread represents the predicted difference between the two teams in the final score of the game.