pervasive
adjective
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
Kevin Waldman, Chicago Tribune, 3 Apr. 2025
But around some water coolers the talk isn’t as pervasive because the jobs aren’t impacted much.
—Kevin Williams, Quartz, 3 Apr. 2025
But the entirely ad hoc process followed here is one that can easily be abused to dictate terms to universities that have not committed the sorts of pervasive wrongs against student education and physical safety that occurred at Columbia.
—The Editors, National Review, 25 Mar. 2025
Its pervasive humor flows from an intimate observation of human folly.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pervasive
Cite this Entry
“Pervasive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pervasive. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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pervasive
adjective
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