widen the gap vs increase the gap

Both 'widen the gap' and 'increase the gap' are correct phrases that can be used interchangeably. They both convey the idea of making the difference or distance between two things larger. The choice between them depends on personal preference or the specific context in which they are used.

Last updated: March 30, 2024 • 6400 views

widen the gap

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to indicate making the difference or distance between two things larger.

This phrase is used when you want to emphasize the act of making the gap wider between two things, such as in competition, performance, or understanding.

Examples:

The new policy will widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
Her exceptional skills helped widen the gap between her and the other competitors.
The cultural differences widened the gap between the two communities.

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This would reverse the disastrous tendency to widen the gap between commitments and regional policy funds actually taken up.
Mr Quinn, the Finance Minister, has described EMU as fundamentally a political project, but he has failed to identify any political benefits which will come from it, or allay fears that it will simply widen the gap between rich and poor.
Could this measure not further widen the gap between states? 4.
We need to widen the gap between us and our aggressors.
However, it is equally true that without active intervention this shift will widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.
If we do deny them, we will only further widen the gap between citizens and politicians.
Giving in to national misgivings would further widen the gap between Europe and its nations.
But offering the representatives of the peoples of the Member States a European system that differs from national law will further widen the gap we are wanting to bridge.
In the second half of the 1990s, however, the rapid acceleration of productivity growth in the US again began to widen the gap.
The conflict surrounding the Criminal Court could widen the gap between the European Union and the United States.
This awareness of danger has dramatically declined since 1990, and there is accordingly now a danger that minor trade policy disputes will escalate to such an emotional level that they could widen the gap between Europe and America.
What is more, they widen the gap between new and old Member States, ignore the principles of cohesion, delay their implementation and hamper countries' economic development.
I must condemn the application, once again, of this surreptitious method, which only goes to discredit this House and widen the gap between MEPs and voters.
Moreover, if we exclude the intentions voiced by the EU, the OECD report shows that the crisis is tending to widen the gap between commitments and disbursements by the vast majority of bilateral donors, and often also to cause further delays or postponement of payments.
Perhaps some people would have preferred to widen the gap, to add more fuel to the fire?
It is time our Commissioners heeded the message of European workers if they do not wish to widen the gap between themselves and the citizens, who will believe less and less in the European project.
However, this will lead to an increase not a reduction in the social crisis. Mr President, I fear that this will accentuate Europe's political crisis and widen the gap between the European citizens and these institutions.
Science, instead of being a means to create a fairer world, will have helped to widen the gap between rich and poor and will have become yet one more instrument of social division.
Pressing on in a state of illusion and hypocrisy would compromise the European project, that is to say the construction of a political union, and would further widen the gap between the common sense of the people and the blindness of the leaders.
Deplores the fact that the 4 th Ministerial Conference was not the expected and necessary 'development round' and its results could widen the gap between the rich and the poor in the North and in the South;

Alternatives:

increase the gap
expand the gap
broaden the gap
deepen the gap
widen the difference

increase the gap

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to indicate making the difference or distance between two things larger.

This phrase is used when you want to highlight the action of making the gap bigger between two things, such as in rankings, scores, or disparities.