Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To communicate or transmit (a signal, a message, or content, such as audio or video programming) to numerous recipients simultaneously over a communication network.
  • intransitive verb To make known over a wide area: synonym: announce.
  • intransitive verb To sow (seed) over a wide area, especially by hand.
  • intransitive verb To communicate or transmit a signal, a message, or content, such as audio or video programming, to numerous recipients simultaneously over a communication network.
  • noun The act or process of broadcasting a signal, a message, or content, such as audio or video programming.
  • noun A signal, message, or audio or video program that is broadcast over a communication network.
  • noun The act of scattering seed.
  • adjective Communicated or transmitted by means of broadcasting, as over a communications network.
  • adjective Of or relating to the broadcasting of audio or video content over communication networks, as in television or radio.
  • adjective Widely known.
  • adjective Scattered over a wide area.
  • adverb In a scattered manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • By scattering or throwing at large from the hand: as, to sow broadcast.
  • So as to disseminate widely; in wide dissemination.
  • noun In agriculture, a method of sowing in which the seed is thrown from the hand in handfuls.
  • Cast or dispersed upon the ground with the hand, as seed in sowing: opposed to sowed in drills or rows.
  • Widely spread or diffused.
  • To sow broadcast.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb to cast or disperse in all directions, as seed from the hand in sowing; to diffuse widely.
  • verb to transmit (sounds, images, or other signals) in all directions from a radio or television station.
  • verb to disseminate (information, a speech, an advertisement, etc.) from a radio or television station.
  • verb to spread (information, news, gossip) widely by any means.
  • adjective Cast or dispersed in all directions, as seed from the hand in sowing; widely diffused.
  • adjective Scattering in all directions (as a method of sowing); -- opposed to planting in hills, or rows.
  • adverb So as to scatter or be scattered in all directions; so as to spread widely, as seed from the hand in sowing, or news from the press.
  • noun (Agric.) A casting or throwing seed in all directions, as from the hand in sowing.
  • noun an act of broadcasting; specifically, a program in which sounds or images are transmitted in all directions from a radio or television station; -- usually referring to a scheduled program on a commercial or public service radio or television station, using the normal radio frequencies for those media, in contrast to a radiotelephone conversation, which may also be transmitted in all directions, but is intended for receipt by a base station in the telephone network.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective cast or scattered widely, in all directions
  • noun A transmission of a radio or television programme aired to be received by anyone with a receiver.
  • noun A programme (show, bulletin, documentary ...) so transmitted.
  • noun dated The act of scattering seed.
  • verb To transmit a message or signal via radio waves or electronic means
  • verb To transmit a message over a wide area
  • verb To appear as speaker, presenter or performer in a broadcast program
  • verb archaic To sow seeds over a wide area
  • verb To send an email in a single transmission to a (typically large) number of people
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of broadcast.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun message that is transmitted by radio or television
  • verb broadcast over the airwaves, as in radio or television
  • verb sow over a wide area, especially by hand
  • noun a radio or television show
  • verb cause to become widely known

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

broad + cast

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Examples

  • •A seamless subscriber experience •across broadcast & unicast channels •broadcast for mass market •3G / LTE for narrowcast / VOD • in full screen mode A Seamless Rich-Media User Experience

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • Surely the most significant feature of this broadcast is the unprofessional way in which I took the sheep coat off my youngest towards the end.

    Plaid on your side 2008

  • I have to say - despite some reservations - Tim is by far the best among what we called broadcast journalists today.

    Tim Russert Has Passed Away 2009

  • Then the seed was sown as the grass seed was, that is, by the method we term broadcast sowing.

    The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. Ellen Eddy Shaw

  • She's terrified about what's going on and doesn't want her name broadcast.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • Imagine if he did become president: he could be telling the world, in a live broadcast from the Oval Office, that he had, on a whim, pre-emptively launched a nuclear strike on Belgium, and no one would pay any attention because we would all be transfixed by his hair.

    Danny Groner: Donald Trump's Hair and the Presidency Danny Groner 2010

  • Lead commentators, Don Cherry and Ron MacLean broadcast from a remote area.

    Mike Plume: “8:30 Newfoundland” « Mudpuddle 2009

  • Five hundred watched a live broadcast from the student center.

    Declan Sullivan Mourned At Notre Dame The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • Imagine if he did become president: he could be telling the world, in a live broadcast from the Oval Office, that he had, on a whim, pre-emptively launched a nuclear strike on Belgium, and no one would pay any attention because we would all be transfixed by his hair.

    Danny Groner: Donald Trump's Hair and the Presidency Danny Groner 2010

  • Imagine if he did become president: he could be telling the world, in a live broadcast from the Oval Office, that he had, on a whim, pre-emptively launched a nuclear strike on Belgium, and no one would pay any attention because we would all be transfixed by his hair.

    Danny Groner: Donald Trump's Hair and the Presidency Danny Groner 2010

Comments

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  • Here at last is something in the doings of man that corresponds with the broadcast doings of the day and night. Preface 1855

    December 9, 2006

  • An all female theatre production. (from Wiley's Dictionary, B.C. Comic)

    February 9, 2013