To broaden or to deepen one’s knowledge? (2024)

To broaden or to deepen one’s knowledge? <-----Topic added to post by moderator (Florentia52)----->

Hello!
I think that the question is clear: which form is more correct (in a formal context)?

Welcome.

Figuratively, both could be used. From a rhetorical or metaphorical perspective, the meanings could be argued to be different. That's why we have such phrasings as "depth and breadth" of knowledge. And why we make distinctions like "a mile wide but an inch deep."

A generalist's knowledge is broad, an expert's deep. Or at least one could make that distinction.

I agree. If you're being formal:

to broaden your knowledge means to get a wider view of a subject, perhaps from different angles, or by studying related topics
to deepen your knowledge means to get a more thorough understanding of the same topic

Karlen said:

Thanks everyone! I was aware that there might be a distinction in the meaning of the two, but I wasn’t sure if they are both formal. Considering the context, I can say that both meanings apply to the sentence where I want to use the word, so I guess I can choose

Click to expand...

What do YOU want it to mean? (Do we have a context yet?)

lingobingo said:

broaden is simply used much more frequently than deepen.

Click to expand...

That could just mean that people have a preference for visiting many subjects superficially, while acquainting themselves in depth with only few.
Or is it a question of collocation? When we use deepen, do we perhaps prefer to pair it with understanding rather than with knowledge?

lingobingo said:

But in terms of those particular verbs, although “correct” doesn’t come into it (there’s nothing wrong with either of them), broaden is simply used much more frequently than deepen.

Click to expand...

Per Google ngram, to "deepen knowledge" surpassed "broaden knowledge" relatively recently, early in the 2000s.

lingobingo said:

That’s not what I found when comparing the two, in various ways.

Click to expand...

I was specifically comparing variants of the verbs, as you suggested earlier. For other variations, the changeover occurred decades earlier!

It's irrelevant (except perhaps to a social psychologist) which is more frequent. The two meanings are totally different. One might as well ask "which form is more correct, dig a deeper hole or dig a wider hole?" Or in political terms "...an ever-closer European Union or an ever-wider European Union?"

The answer was there in #3 and #6.

JulianStuart said:

What do YOU want it to mean? (Do we have a context yet?)

Click to expand...

The context is that I have been writing a motivational letter for an internship, so I wanted to introduce a paragraph mentioning the activities I participate in in order to broaden AND deepen my knowledge of the subject.

I chose the word "deepen" because I intend to write specifically about pursuing a few particular areas of interest in greater detail.

Karlen said:

The context is that I have been writing a motivational letter for an internship, so I wanted to introduce a paragraph mentioning the activities I participate in in order to broaden AND deepen my knowledge of the subject.

I chose the word "deepen" because I intend to write specifically about pursuing a few particular areas of interest in greater detail.

Click to expand...

For the sake of brevity, "deepen" by itself is certainly more than adequate.