Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The measure or dimension from side to side; width.
- n. A piece usually produced in a standard width: a breadth of canvas.
- n. Wide range or scope: breadth of knowledge.
- n. Tolerance; broadmindedness: a jurist of great breadth and wisdom.
- n. An effect of unified, encompassing vision in an artistic composition.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The measure of the second principal diameter of a surface or solid, the first being length, and the third (in the case of a solid) thickness. Thus, if a rectangular parallelopiped measures 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot, its breadth is 2 feet. The breadth of a surface is, in the common use of the word, the distance between the margins, which are regarded as the sides, as distinguished from
length , or the distance fromend to end. - n. Hence Figuratively, largeness; freedom from narrowness or restraint; liberality: as, breadth of culture, breadth of view, etc.
- n. That quality in a work of art, whether pictorial or plastic, which is obtained by the simple, clear rendering of essential forms, and the strict subordination of details to general effect. Breadth of design, of color, of light and shade, or of surface treatment, gives an impression of mastery, ease, and freedom in the use of material on the part of the artist, which conveys a sense of repose and dignity to the mind.
- n. In logic, extension; an aggregate of subjects of which a logical term can be predicated.
- n. Something that has breadth; specifically, a piece of a fabric of the regular width; a width.
Wiktionary
- n. The extent or measure of how broad or wide something is.
- n. A piece of fabric of standard width.
- n. Scope or range, especially of knowledge or skill.
- n. mathematics (graph theory) the length of the longest path between two vertices on a graph
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Distance from side to side of any surface or thing; measure across, or at right angles to the length; width.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the extent of something from side to side
- n. the capacity to understand a broad range of topics
Etymologies
- broad + -th (Wiktionary)
- Middle English breth, from brede (on the model of length, length). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When the Xbox 360 first came out, the talk was all about the graphics horsepower and the title breadth of the platform.”
“Comcast's VOD offerings could use a serious increase in breadth and depth, sadly, this is only a 5000 subscriber trial and it's not in Houston.”
“The decision to choose depth instead of breadth is a trade-off, of course; some subgenres (like military sf and steampunk) are omitted.”
REVIEW: The Science Fiction Handbook by M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas
“What Conroy has in breadth, however, he lacks in depth.”
“A requirement to explore a field in breadth and in depth still seems necessary to ensure that a student is competent to practice in that field.”
Two Thoughts on Economic Education, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“But the problem seems to be that the people writing about it are mostly of the inside-the-Beltway punditry, meaning it lacks a certain breadth, I think.”
The Huffington Post: Chris Weigant: To Lefties: How Does Obama Disappoint?
“Otherwise put, what Europe of the 27 has gained in breadth it has lost in thought regarding itself and its principles.”
“I could easily see a customer service rep, going through a bunch of emails in a day, glancing at a complaint title, seeing the 'adult' flag, and dashing off the form e-mail before the breadth is realized.”
Amazon Fail: Certain "adult" books (like mine) are de-ranked - Feministing
“It's a little less interesting on the palate, showing mostly cherry and lemon, but the merlot brings a certain breadth and a gentle roundess that makes it mouthfilling without being a 'big' wine.”
““The Sleeping Beauty” is the hardest of the 19th-century ballets to bring off, the one that most thoroughly showcases a major classical company in breadth and depth; and it used to be more or less enchanting night after night at the Royal Ballet, no matter which ballerina you watched.”
Ballet in London: ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at Covent Garden - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘breadth’.
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shapes
words for shape
( randomness, visual. descriptive )triangular, conical, round, broad, congruous, hexagonal, globular, curved, oval, rectangular, parallel, crumpled and 142 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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ficciones's list
encyclopedic
imbroglio, splendour, brilliance, labyrinth, vast, precipice, ebb and flow, tidal, crevasse, resonate, redolent, prudent and 55 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Words from "Pearls Before Breakfast"
nondescript, shrewd, seed money, bureaucrat, indeterminate, fungible, cupidity, banal, grandeur, utilitarian, buffer, ecstatic and 123 more...
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nail01
sentimental, eloquent, inevitable, pretentious, verbose, aptly, stoically, grandiloquent, valedictory, assiduous, exorbitant, wreaked and 154 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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DreamieGrl's Words
integral, serendipidy, cordial, interesting, crucial, placate, superfluous, supercilious, scintillating, lush, tryst, mythical and 111 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Ugliest Words Ever
words that I refuse to say out loud.
tuna, uranus, bulbous, vaginal, rectum, cunnilingus, flatulance, pedagogy, blooper, booger, beefy, polyp and 116 more...
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The Decemberists
The Decemberists tend to use a lot of interesting words in their songs.
parapet, wastrel, mescaline, indolent, balustrade, vagabond, sprightly, grapple, gunwale, odalisque, timberline, moribund and 116 more...
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Evin290's Words
puerile, fastidious, blatherskite, folderol, femtosecond, redox, incarnadine, cerulean, genuflection, muslin, multitudinous, miasma and 517 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for breadth.

pappajoseph A wide bread eaten by Puritans, and referred to in their thanksgiving prayer ‘Lord, we thank thee, for thou hath given us out of thy bounty our daily breadth’. Apr 20, 2011