ubiquitous
Ubiquitous describes something that is present or encountered everywhere at the same time, so common that it is hard to avoid.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- Present or found everywhere at the same time.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Examples
- Smartphones are now ubiquitous in daily life.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The slogan became ubiquitous within weeks.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Usage
Ubiquitous is a formal adjective with a slightly bookish air, and in journalism it usually describes technology that has spread through daily life. It is common in writing about computing, branding and surveillance, where it often carries a hint of unease, and rarer in speech, where everywhere does the work. The adverb ubiquitously is much less frequent than the adjective.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)The adjective normally stands before the noun it describes: ubiquitous presence, ubiquitous computing, a ubiquitous brand. It also appears after the verb become, in the pattern something has become ubiquitous, which is the commonest shape in journalism. It is gradable, so more ubiquitous and most ubiquitous are normal, and it takes no preposition of its own.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Ubiquitous is sometimes used to mean merely widespread. A word that is ubiquitous is found everywhere, while widespread allows gaps, and this difference matters in claims about technology. A second error is to apply it to a person as a jokey way of saying they get about, which works in speech but reads oddly in careful prose.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Word forms
Regular forms according to English morphology (editorial description).
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| positive | ubiquitous |
| comparative | more ubiquitous |
| superlative | most ubiquitous |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- ubiquitous presence
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - became ubiquitous
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourceRelated words
- ubiquity , noun
- ubiquitously , adverb
Related entries
Questions and answers
What does ubiquitous mean?
Ubiquitous describes a thing that turns up everywhere, so that avoiding it is practically impossible. Smartphones in daily life are the usual example, and so is a slogan printed on every available surface. The word claims completeness, not merely that something happens often or in many places.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)What is the difference between ubiquitous and widespread?
Widespread means found over a large area or among many people, and it allows gaps, while ubiquitous claims that the thing is everywhere and cannot be avoided. A widespread habit may still be rare in some places; a ubiquitous one is met at every turn. The second word is stronger and easier to overstate.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Can ubiquitous be compared?
Yes. More ubiquitous and most ubiquitous are both used, and the comparative appears in claims that one technology is becoming more ubiquitous than another. The word is an ordinary adjective in this respect, so it takes more and most rather than the endings -er and -est, which would be awkward on a word of this length.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word ubiquitous come from?
The Latin adverb ubique meant everywhere and was built from ubi, where, with a generalising particle attached. According to Skeat, Latin ubiquitas was coined for the idea of omnipresence, English ubiquity was formed to match it, and ubiquitous then came from ubiquity by adding the suffix -ous.