English → Latin
“spread” in Latin
tendōto stretch, stretch out, distend, extend; to direct oneself or one's course; to aim, strive, go, travel, march, tend, becontendōto hurry; to stretch, draw tight, make taut, strain; to place together in comparison, compare, contrastdistendōto stretch out, extend; to swell or distend (asunder) or pulled apart; to distractextendōto stretch or thrust out; to extend, prolong or continue; to enlarge or increasepandōto bend, curve anything; to bend (oneself)dispandōto stretch out, to spread out, to extend, to expandexplicōto unfold, unfurl, uncoil, loosen, undo; to spread out, stretch out, extend, display, deploy; to disentangle, solve, setdiffundōto diffuse, scatter; to decant, spread or pour outlū̆xuriōto be luxuriant, rank, abounding to excess; to have in abundance. (coupled with ablative); to swell, enlarge, grow rapid
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
spread v.
Transitively, tendere: contendere (to spread out): distendere (to stretch apart or asunder): extendere (to stretch out, extend): pandere: dispandere (to open, spread out): explicare (to unfold). To spread nets, plagas tendere (Cic., Off., 3, 17, 68); retia tendere (for an animal, alicui; also figuratively). To spread the sails, vela dare ventis; vela tendere or pandere (poetical).
Intransitively, diffundi (of trees and their branches): luxuriari (to grow luxuriantly; of plants). To spread far, late diffundi (of branches); vastis or patulis diffundi ramis (of trees); manare, serpere (of a calamity, a rumor; the latter also with the notion of gradual, unobserved progress); increbrescere, invalescere (as customs, etc.); diffundi, evagari (of diseases): luxury spreads, luxus excrescit or pullulare coepit: to spread further, longius serpere atque progredi (of an evil): to spread further every day, serpere manareque in dies latius: a rumor spreads through the whole town, rumor tota urbe manat or discurrit: the doctrine of Pythagoras spread far and wide, doctrina Pythagoras longe lateque fluebat.
spread s.
By circumlocution with the verb.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for spread?
- The usual Latin words for “spread” are tendō, contendō, distendō; also extendō, pandō, dispandō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.