# width (10-width.com)

Width is how wide something is from side to side. People ask about the width of a door, a room, or a photo.

## What a model may hear
- display width (CSS and web design): Set or read the horizontal size of an element in pixels or percentages
- bit width (computer architecture): Assume a data type size such as 32-bit or 64-bit registers
- column width (databases and tables): Limit or format the character count allowed in a field
- kernel width (machine learning): Set the receptive field size in a convolutional layer

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "Make it wider"
  Means: Show me more content on screen
  May be taken as: Expand a CSS element beyond its container and break the layout
  Say instead: "Show more text per line without breaking the page layout"
- Says: "Full width"
  Means: Use the whole screen
  May be taken as: Set width to 100vw which may cause horizontal scroll on mobile
  Say instead: "Span the full content area without causing side scrolling"
- Says: "Width of the data"
  Means: How many items are in the dataset
  May be taken as: Interpret as bit width or memory allocation size
  Say instead: "How many rows or records are in the dataset"

## Tips
- Say 'in pixels' or 'in inches' to avoid unit confusion
- Say 'page width' not just 'width' when you mean the whole screen
- Say 'number of columns' instead of 'width' for table shape
- Add 'on mobile' or 'on desktop' when you mean responsive layout
- Say 'memory size' or 'register size' if you mean bit width

## Often confused with
- breadth: figurative scope, rarely a CSS property
- length: the longer dimension, not horizontal
- depth: layers or hierarchy, not horizontal span
- span: distance between two points, often in grid systems
- size: general dimension without direction
- extent: abstract range, not a layout property