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
Greg Brunk, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
Such abnormal living conditions can have pervasive effects on people’s health.
—Yahya Salem, CNN, 3 Nov. 2024
That level of pervasive surveillance can have far-reaching implications, Okoh said.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 2 Nov. 2024
Maybe the coalition could infuse some of Trump’s old instincts (the nativism, the unending crusade against a pervasive enemy) with a new sense of purpose (more working-class cred, a turn toward economic populism).
—Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pervasive 
Dictionary Entries Near pervasive
Cite this Entry
“Pervasive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pervasive. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.
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pervasive
adjective
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