range vs spread

range

noun
  • An area of open, often unfenced, grazing land. 

  • A fireplace; a fire or other cooking apparatus; now specifically, a large cooking stove with many hotplates. 

  • An area for practicing shooting at targets. 

  • The extent or space taken in by anything excursive; compass or extent of excursion; reach; scope. 

  • The scale of all the tones a voice or an instrument can produce. 

  • The distance from a person or sensor to an object, target, emanation, or event. 

  • The length of the smallest interval which contains all the data in a sample; the difference between the largest and smallest observations in the sample. 

  • The geographical area or zone where a species is normally naturally found. 

  • A sequential list of values specified by an iterator. 

  • The maximum distance or reach of capability (of a weapon, radio, detector, etc.). 

  • The set of values (points) which a function can obtain. 

  • An area for military training or equipment testing. 

  • A wandering or roving; a going to and fro; an excursion; a ramble; an expedition. 

  • A line or series of mountains, buildings, etc. 

  • In the public land system, a row or line of townships lying between two succession meridian lines six miles apart. 

  • The distance a vehicle (e.g., a car, bicycle, lorry, or aircraft) can travel without refueling. 

  • Selection, array. 

  • The defensive area that a player can cover. 

  • An aggregate of individuals in one rank or degree; an order; a class. 

  • The variety of roles that an actor can play in a satisfactory way. 

verb
  • To bring (something) into a specified position or relationship (especially, of opposition) with something else. 

  • To classify. 

  • Of a variable, to be able to take any of the values in a specified range. 

  • To be native to, or live in, a certain district or region. 

  • To form a line or a row. 

  • To place among others in a line, row, or order, as in the ranks of an army; usually, reflexively and figuratively, to espouse a cause, to join a party, etc. 

  • To sail or pass in a direction parallel to or near. 

  • Of a player, to travel a significant distance for a defensive play. 

  • To rove over or through. 

  • To determine the range to a target. 

  • To travel over (an area, etc); to roam, wander. 

  • To set in a row, or in rows; to place in a regular line or lines, or in ranks; to dispose in the proper order. 

  • To be placed in order; to be ranked; to admit of arrangement or classification; to rank. 

spread

noun
  • An expanse of land. 

  • The difference between the prices of two similar items. 

  • An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points. 

  • The difference between the wholesale and retail prices. 

  • The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity. 

  • The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity. 

  • Excessive width of the trails of ink written on overly absorbent paper. 

  • Two facing pages in a book, newspaper etc. 

  • An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page. 

  • A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread). 

  • Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams. 

  • The difference between bidding and asking price. 

  • The surface in proportion to the depth of a cut gemstone. 

  • An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies. 

  • The act of spreading. 

  • Something that has been spread. 

  • A set of multiple torpedoes launched on side-by-side, slowly-diverging paths toward one or more enemy ships. 

  • Food improvised by inmates from various ingredients to relieve the tedium of prison food. 

  • A numerical difference. 

  • The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity. 

  • A large meal, especially one laid out on a table. 

  • A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading. 

  • A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch. 

verb
  • To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area. 

  • To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space. 

  • To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter. 

  • To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended. 

  • To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions. 

  • To smear, to distribute in a thin layer. 

  • To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated. 

  • To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present. 

  • To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. 

  • To open one’s legs, especially for sexual favours. 

How often have the words range and spread occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )