Which statement best describes semantic broadening?

• A. Semantic broadening narrows a word's meaning over time.
• B. Semantic narrowing shifts toward a broader sense.
• C. Semantic narrowing refers to phonetic changes.
• D. Semantic broadening occurs when a word gains a broader sense over time.

Answer: (D)

Semantic broadening is when a word’s sense grows to cover more things than it used to. The statement that semantic broadening occurs when a word gains a broader sense over time matches this idea exactly: over time, a word can generalize to include additional referents or categories. A helpful way to see this is to look at how meanings evolve in everyday language—for example, a term that once named a specific thing may come to refer to a wider class. The opposite process is semantic narrowing, where a word’s sense becomes more restricted, and phonetic changes involve shifts in sound rather than meaning. So the described idea is the best fit.