breadth

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

Noun

  1. The extent or measure of how broad or wide something is; width.
    • The breadth of the corridor is 4.5 metres.
    • 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. - 1873, Charles Tomlinson, chapter III, in Winter in...
  2. A piece of fabric of standard width.
  3. Scope or range, especially of knowledge or skill.
    • expand one’s breadth of marketing
    • "The breadth of this LPR system is spectacular and amounts to a warrantless search." - 2023 July 24, Chris Eberhart, “NY police used AI to track drivers on highways as attorney questions legality”, in Fox News, archived...
  4. A style in painting in which details are strictly subordinated to the harmony of the whole composition.
  5. The length of the longest path between two vertices in a graph.

Origin

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”).

Forms

breadths

Synonyms

width extent range scope size

Derived

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