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broad

adj
/bɹɔːd/UK/bɹɔd/US/bɹɑd/CA/bɹoːd/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.? Proto-Germanic *braidaz Proto-West Germanic *braid Old English brād Middle English brod English broad From Middle English brood, brode, from Old English brād (“broad, flat, open, extended, spacious, wide, ample, copious”), from Proto-West Germanic *braid, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz (“broad, wide”), of uncertain origin. Cognates Cognate with Yola brode (“broad”), North Frisian bread, breeđ, briad, briid, briidj (“wide”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian breed (“broad, wide”), Bavarian brad, broad (“broad, wide”), Central Franconian and Luxembourgish breet (“broad, wide”), Dutch breed (“broad, wide”), German breit (“broad, wide”), Vilamovian braat (“broad, wide”), Yiddish ברייט (breyt, “broad, wide”), Danish and Swedish bred (“broad, wide”), Faroese and Icelandic breiður (“broad, wide”), Norwegian Bokmål bred, brei (“broad, wide”), Norwegian Nynorsk brei, breid (“broad, wide”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (braiþs, “broad, wide”).

  1. inherited from *braidaz✻ — “broad, wide”
  2. inherited from *braid✻
  3. inherited from brād — “broad, flat, open, extended, spacious, wide, ample, copious”
  4. inherited from brood

Definitions

  1. Wide in extent or scope.

    • three feet broad
    • the broad expanse of ocean

  2. Extended, in the sense of diffused

    Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full.

    • broad and open day
    • crushing the minds of its victims in the broad and open day

  3. Having a large measure of any thing or quality

    Having a large measure of any thing or quality; unlimited; unrestrained.

    • a broad mixture of falsehood
  4. ›+ 16 more definitions

    1. Comprehensive

      Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged.

      • The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case.
      • in a broad, statesmanlike, and masterly way

    2. Plain

      Plain; evident.

      • a broad hint

    3. General rather than specific.

      • to be in broad agreement

    4. Unsubtle

      Unsubtle; obvious.

      • Lee: I wrote that line for you. Maeve: A bit broad, if you ask me.

    5. Free

      Free; unrestrained; unconfined.

      • as broad and general as the casing air

    6. Gross

      Gross; coarse; indelicate.

      • a broad compliment; a broad joke; broad humour

    7. Strongly regional.

      • She still has a broad Scottish accent, despite moving to California 20 years ago.

    8. Velarized, i.e. not palatalized.

    9. A shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk.

    10. A lathe tool for turning down the insides and bottoms of cylinders.

    11. A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656.

    12. A kind of floodlight.

      • […] fresnel spotlights, old-type broads, sky-pans, cone-lights, etc.
      • Some broads have barn doors (see page 115) to block gross light spill into other set areas; others have even an adjustable beam, […]
      • Light bounced from large white surfaces (e.g., matte reflector boards, or a white ceiling). Floodlights include scoops, broads, floodlight, banks, internally reflected units, strip lights, and cyclorama lights.

    13. A playing card.

      • I reckon as old Sol couldn't ha' lived without a pack of broads. If he couldn't find anybody to play with him, he'd play alone, […]

    14. A prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

      • “Now we go up Bowery Street look at broads. Me pay.”

    15. A woman or girl.

      • They always hook you in the end, them broads. This whole trouble is on account of a dame reads a book.
      • Hey, man, Truck, you got to understand, she's a no class broad and you a gross son of a bitch. Naturally, she don't like you.
      • The grunts resumed their bitching at the heat, the hills, and the lack of cold beer and hot broads.

    16. A surname.

The neighborhood

  • antonymthinantonym(s) of “wide—regarding occupied space, width of an object”
  • antonymnarrowantonym(s) of “wide—regarding occupied space, width of an object”
  • antonymskinnyantonym(s) of “wide—regarding body width”
  • antonymall-encompassingantonym(s) of
  • antonymcomprehensive
  • antonymslenderantonym(s) of “not palatalized”
  • neighborBradford
  • neighborBradley
  • neighborBradshaw

Derived

Broadland, broadsman, Oulton Broad, old broad

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at broad. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01broad02unlimited03bounds04bound05word06speaking07expressive08literal09read10letters

A definitional loop anchored at broad. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at broad

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA