1
as in to extend
to extend outwards from or as if from a central point
The suburbs sprawl for miles beyond the city's downtown.
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2
as in to stretch (out)
to rest with the arms and legs spread out
There's no feeling like sprawling out on your bed after a hard day's work.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sprawl
Everything from the abilities and systems to learn, the sprawling pantheon of characters and plot threads, and the basic length of the campaign is nearly doubled in scope.
—
Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025
Benicio del Toro’s Sensei oversees a sprawling apartment building that harbors refugees.
—Pat Saperstein, Variety, 27 Sep. 2025
With the help of a behelit, Entertainment Weekly has put together the ultimate guide to this sprawling action anime.
—Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Sep. 2025
Advertisement Most of the female characters in One Battle After Another are Black, and while the film features far fewer faces than Pynchon’s sprawling, expansive book, Anderson has intentionally altered the races of the characters based on Frenesi, Prairie, and DL for his film.
—Rory Doherty, Time, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sprawl
Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025
Benicio del Toro’s Sensei oversees a sprawling apartment building that harbors refugees.
—Pat Saperstein, Variety, 27 Sep. 2025
With the help of a behelit, Entertainment Weekly has put together the ultimate guide to this sprawling action anime.
—Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Sep. 2025
Advertisement Most of the female characters in One Battle After Another are Black, and while the film features far fewer faces than Pynchon’s sprawling, expansive book, Anderson has intentionally altered the races of the characters based on Frenesi, Prairie, and DL for his film.
—Rory Doherty, Time, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sprawl
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sprawl
Verb
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Democrats countered that the GOP proposal actually is partisan, since Republicans are seeking to extend funding following the passage of a controversial spending bill that narrowly passed in July over the objections of all congressional Democrats.—
Kevin Breuninger,Sam Meredith,
CNBC,
1 Oct. 2025
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The court will decide whether to extend McElroy’s TRO into a longer preliminary injunction, which would keep the FEMA homeland security grants available while the case proceeds.—
Robert Alexander,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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As the years went on, their paths diverged financially.—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
28 Sep. 2025
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The team pieced together what’s known as a phylogenetic tree showing how different human species may have diverged from one another over the past 1 million years.—
Katie Hunt,
CNN Money,
25 Sep. 2025
Verb
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As the test was administered, Officer Kelby Dumond sat atop Ross to monitor the horse's every reaction.—
Craig Shoup,
Nashville Tennessean,
3 Oct. 2025
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At Rosa, the décor is colorful and feminine, plastic lines the throw pillows and a bowl of candy sits at the register — the trademark of a good church granny.—
Lyndsay C. Green,
Freep.com,
3 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The Educational Freedom Accounts program significantly expand state taxpayer funding of student tuition and other costs related to private schools and some home-school expenses.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
2 Oct. 2025
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This is a sister organization to the Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025—a sweeping conservative policy blueprint aimed at reshaping the federal government by expanding presidential power, dismantling parts of the civil service, and rolling back regulations across agencies.—
Martha McHardy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Splinter after splinter flopping onto the stone threshold, tsss, tsss, hissing like a nest of vipers.—
Zuzana Říhová,
Literary Hub,
26 Sep. 2025
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This Colombian has been flopping in the US since 2003, has apparently not had a job since 2014.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The series radiates warmth, celebrates flawed but generally well-meaning people—particularly men—coming together to learn how to show themselves and those around them the love everyone deserves.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
26 Sep. 2025
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The stars will all burn out; the corpses of these stars will radiate all their heat away and cool to absolute zero; the stellar remnants will gravitationally interact, ejecting the majority of objects into intergalactic space, while the few remaining black holes grow to enormous sizes.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
25 Sep. 2025
Verb
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As the action took place, the fashionable crowd lounged on the beautifully landscaped outdoor dining area, grazing on the pies and taking pictures of the sea.—
Jacqui Gifford,
Travel + Leisure,
29 Sep. 2025
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Bomber jackets are seemingly always in style, but the 48-year-old actress gave it a cozy upgrade, opting for a teddy material that’s soft enough to lounge in yet elegant enough for the red carpet.—
Rylee Johnston,
PEOPLE,
29 Sep. 2025
Verb
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To facilitate even heating, let food rest for a few minutes after cooking.—
Janet Loehrke,
USA Today,
3 Oct. 2025
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Whereas the prosecution spent more than six weeks presenting its case against Combs, the mogul's defense did not call any witnesses to the stand and rested its case in under 30 minutes.—
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento,
NPR,
2 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sprawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sprawl. Accessed 4 Oct. 2025.
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