A multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) transmitter and methods for transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols with cyclic-delay diversity (CDD) are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a base station uses a number of antennas for MIMO transmission of OFDM symbols. For the number of antennas, quadrature-amplitude modulated (QAM) symbols are distributed across a group of OFDM tones of a block comprising the group of tones and a group of OFDM symbols. An incremented cyclic delay is applied to the QAM symbols of the block associated with each subsequent of the antennas for CDD transmission. Each blocks is transmitted by an associated one of the antennas.