breadth

English

Etymology

From Middle English bredthe, alteration (due to nouns ending in -th: length, strength, wrength, etc.) of brede ("breadth"; see bread). Equivalent to broad +‎ -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots bredth (“breadth”), Saterland Frisian Bratte (“breadth”), West Frisian breedte (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Low German Breddte, Breddt (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Danish bredde (“breadth”), Norwegian Bokmål bredde (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹɛdθ/, /bɹɛtθ/, /bɹɛθ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdθ

Noun

breadth (countable and uncountable, plural breadths)

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

   The breadth of the corridor is 4.5 metres.

   • 1873, Charles Tomlinson, chapter III, in Winter in the Arctic Regions and Summer in the Antarctic Regions‎^[1], London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, →OCLC, page 122:

     The sledges of the Esquimaux are of large size, varying from six and a half to nine and even eleven feet in length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth.

2. A piece of fabric of standard width.
3. Scope or range, especially of knowledge or skill.

   expand one’s breadth of marketing

   • 2023 July 24, Chris Eberhart, “NY police used AI to track drivers on highways as attorney questions legality”, in Fox News‎^[2]:

     "The breadth of this LPR system is spectacular and amounts to a warrantless search."

4. (art) A style in painting in which details are strictly subordinated to the harmony of the whole composition.
5. (graph theory) The length of the longest path between two vertices in a graph.

Synonyms

• (extent or measure of how broad something is): width
• (piece of fabric of standard width):
• (scope or range): extent, range, scope, size

Derived terms

• acre breadth
• bizygomatic breadth
• breadthen
• breadth-first search
• breadth-first traversal
• breadth-height index
• breadth index
• breadth indicator
• breadthless
• breadth-line
• breadth of accommodation
• breadth of effect
• breadth of market
• breadth-of-market theory
• breadth of mind
• breadth of the market
• breadth of tone
• breadth-riders
• breadthways
• breadthwise
• brength
• by a hair's breadth
• curve of constant breadth
• finger-breadth, fingerbreadth
• finger's breadth
• fingersbreadth
• foot-breadth, footbreadth
• hairbreadth
• hair's breadth, hairsbreadth
• handbreadth, hand's breadth, handsbreadth
• index of breadth
• overbreadth
• straw-breadth, straw's breadth
• thumbsbreadth
• wheel breadth

Translations

width — see width

piece of fabric of standard width

• Bulgarian: ширина́ (bg) f (širiná)
• Middle English: brede
• Russian: ширина́ (ru) f (širiná), поло́тнище (ru) n (polótnišče)

scope, range

• Bashkir: киңлек (kiñlek)
• Bulgarian: широта́ (bg) f (širotá), разма́х (bg) m (razmáh), обхва́т (bg) m (obhvát)
• German: Breite (de) f
• Middle English: brede
• Russian: широта́ (ru) f (širotá), разма́х (ru) m (razmáx), обхва́т (ru) m (obxvát), объём (ru) m (obʺjóm)
• Scottish Gaelic: leud m, farsaingeachd f
• Sicilian: larghizza f, largu (scn) m, grannizza f
• Swedish: bredd (sv) c