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breadth

noun

Simple meaning

The extent of something from side to side.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

brehdth
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɹɛdθ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The extent of something from side to side

  2. The extent or measure of how broad or wide something is; width.

  3. A piece of fabric of standard width.

  4. Scope or range, especially of knowledge or skill.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The extent of something from side to side

Used this way, breadth is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use breadth

  • “A teacher must have a breadth of knowledge of the subject.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

whole breadthgreat breadthgreater breadthaverage breadthmaximum breadthfull breadth

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • breadth indexnounCompound term

    Ratio (in percent) of the maximum breadth to the maximum length of a skull.

  • finger's breadthnounCompound term

    The length of breadth of a finger used as a linear measure.

  • hair's-breadthnounCompound term

    A very small distance or space.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: extent of something from side to side

width

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.