broad
Meanings
- Wide in extent or scope.
- Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full.
- Having a large measure of any thing or quality; unlimited; unrestrained.
- Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged.
- Plain; evident.
- General rather than specific.
- Unsubtle; obvious.
- Free; unrestrained; unconfined.
- Gross; coarse; indelicate.
- Strongly regional.
- Velarized, i.e. not palatalized.
- A shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk.
- A lathe tool for turning down the insides and bottoms of cylinders.
- A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656.
- A kind of floodlight.
- A playing card.
- A prostitute, a woman of loose morals.
- A woman or girl.
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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”).