pervasive
adjective
Shaun Harper
Did you know?
Is pervasive always negative?
Pervasive is most often used of things we don't really want spreading throughout all parts of something:
a pervasive problem
a stench that is pervasive
pervasive corruption
But pervasive can occasionally also be found in neutral and even positive contexts:
a pervasive rhythm
a pervasive sense of calm
The meaning isn't neutral when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) uses it. Beginning in the early 1990s, the MPAA started giving the R rating to movies with "pervasive language." Most movies have language throughout, of course. The MPAA is using the phrase "pervasive language" to refer to the frequent use of a particular kind of language: profanity.
Examples of pervasive in a Sentence
Mark Slouka, Harper's, November 2004
The manic money-grab excitement of the Nineties had never been altogether free of our pervasive American guilt.
—Norman Mailer, New York Review of Books, 27 Mar. 2002
Race was never articulated as an issue at the trial, even though its presence was pervasive.
—Howard Chua-Eoan, Time, 6 Mar. 2000
the pervasive nature of the problem
television's pervasive influence on our culture
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, The Atlantic, 9 Feb. 2026
The chipmaker's handset volumes are likely to be impacted by severe memory shortage and that pressure will become more pervasive as the year goes on, said analyst Joseph Moore.
—Sean Conlon,sarah Min, CNBC, 9 Feb. 2026
In our reporting for this story, Glamour heard many stories of kindness and community support, the kind of acts needed to sustain and offer hope amid a pervasive and looming threat.
—Anna Moeslein, Glamour, 7 Feb. 2026
Conversely, if the spending is collapsing due to poor returns, the technology cannot be pervasive enough to threaten legacy software models.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 4 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pervasive
Cite this Entry
“Pervasive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pervasive. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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pervasive
adjective
