branch
Pluralbranches
Verbbranches, branching, branched
Pluralbranches
Formsbranches, branching, branched
- 1A woody part growing from a tree's trunk or another branch, usually dividing into smaller offshoots.
The lowest branch hung so low we could touch its leaves.
After the storm, fallen branches covered the whole path.
UsageA bird sits on a branch; leaves and fruit grow on branches; nests can be in the branches.
Note
By 1556 John Heywood could set braunce beside roote and bough. Among its near synonyms, limb and bough lean toward the large arms of a tree and twig toward the smallest. Branch can be any of them.
- 2A local office, store, or unit that is one of several operated by the same organization.
The bank closed its smallest branch after years of declining business.
Customers can return items at any of our branches nationwide.
UsageYou bank or work at a branch; a company has branches in several cities.
Oppositeheadquarters
- 3A major division of a government or of a nation's armed forces, with its own separate powers or responsibilities.
The Constitution splits power among three branches so that no single branch can govern alone.
Recruiters from every branch of the armed forces set up tables at the career fair.
UsageUsually a branch of government or a branch of the military; people serve in a branch.
- 4A distinct division within a field of business, knowledge, or research.
Algebra is a branch of mathematics concerned with symbols and the rules for manipulating them.
She specializes in a relatively new branch of cognitive psychology.
UsageUsually a branch of a subject: a branch of mathematics, of medicine.
Similararea, field, subfield, discipline, division
- 5
- 6To divide into separate parts or subdivisions, or to cause something to do so.
Rivers often branch into smaller streams as they near the coast.
The road runs north for a mile, then begins to branch into narrow farm tracks.
UsageOften branch into two or more parts, or branch off from something larger: a path branches off the main road.
- 7Of a tree or plant: to put out branches, or (of a limb) to grow outward from the trunk or a larger branch.
Apple trees branch low, making the fruit easy to pick.
The old oak had branched into a wide, spreading crown.
- 8A line of family descent kept distinct from other lines sharing the same ancestor, or any descendant in that line.
The American branch of the family lost touch with their European cousins.
Genealogists traced three distinct branches back to a single medieval landowner.
Note
Genealogy takes the family tree literally. A younger branch is a junior line from the same stock, and the word can name a person as well as a lineage. Richard Carew's The Survey of Cornwall (1602) calls a man's father "a younger branch of the ancient stock." Elizabeth Gidley Withycombe, writing in 1945, applies it to whole sub-lines within a Roman gens.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Richard Carew wrote The Survey of Cornwall, first published in 1602. gutenberg.org
- Carew describes a man's father as a younger branch of the ancient stock; the item's quotation modernizes stocke to stock. gutenberg.org
- Elizabeth Gidley Withycombe's relevant book was first published in 1945. en.wikipedia.org
- Withycombe's 1945 introduction uses branch for a whole subdivision of a Roman gens. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A secondary railway line that diverges from a main route to serve a smaller area.
The railway company reopened the scenic branch for summer tourists.
Freight still runs along two of the region's surviving branches.
UsageThe full phrase is branch line; it leaves the main line.
Similarspur
Note
Railway speech clips branch line to plain branch, and the tree image survives the shortening. The main route plays the trunk, and the branch leaves it, often for a town off the main line, though some branches join a main line again. That is the contrast to keep in mind: a branch is defined by the line it departs from. The same picture of one thing parting from a larger one runs through the tree sense and the verb of dividing.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- In railway terminology, branch can stand for branch line. en.wiktionary.org
- The railway sense preserves the tree metaphor, also reflected in the verb meaning division. en.wiktionary.org
- A railway main line corresponds to the trunk. en.wikipedia.org
- A branch line leaves a more important railway route. en.wikipedia.org
- A branch can rejoin its main line: the Hertford Loop is a branch of the East Coast Main Line that rejoins it at Langley Junction. en.wikipedia.org
- The verb branch includes the meaning of dividing into parts. en.wiktionary.org
- 10A tributary creek or stream that empties into a larger river.
Several small branches feed the river as it winds through the valley.
The hikers followed the branch upstream to its source.
UsageOutside the South, creek or stream is the usual word.
Similarcreek, stream, tributary, brook
Note
A regional word of the American South, where a small stream feeding a river may be called a branch. It survives in the compound branch water, meaning water taken from such a stream. A reader elsewhere may take the word as a fork of something larger.
- 11In version control, a copy of a project's files that is developed separately from the main line of work.
The team merged the feature branch back into the main line once testing passed.
Each release has its own branch containing source code, scripts, and image assets.
UsageOften a feature branch or release branch; you create a branch and later merge it back.
Note
In version control the word names a line of development. It is a set of files, such as source code, build scripts and images, kept apart so work can go on in parallel and later be merged back. Do not confuse it with the conditional code path: a version-control branch tracks versions of files, while a code branch is a route through a running program.
Less common meanings
- 12A section of code that runs only when a particular condition is met.
The compiler optimizes the branch that runs most often.
Unit tests should exercise both branches of the conditional.
Similarpath
Note
Programmers name the path, not the fork. Each block of code that a condition may or may not run is a branch, so an if–else statement has two. Tests aim to exercise every branch, and compilers can favor the branch taken most often. The act of jumping there is its verb partner. The version-control use is a different thing entirely.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A simple if–else statement has two alternative branches. llvm.org
- Exercising every branch is the goal of full branch coverage in testing. coverage.readthedocs.io
- Compilers can optimize code according to how frequently different branches execute. gcc.gnu.org
- 13To jump to a different point in a program's instructions, typically when a conditional test decides which path is taken.
The processor will branch whenever the condition flag is set.
If the input is invalid, the routine branches back to the prompt.
UsageTakes a direction: branch to a routine, branch back to the prompt.
Similarjump
Note
The verb behind the conditional block of code: a program branches to another instruction instead of running on to the next. For example, a conditional branch instruction may jump when a specified condition flag is set. Conditional jumps are common, but branches can also be unconditional.
- 14To strip a tree or log of its limbs.
They cut down a young pear-tree, branch it, and carry it home.
1890, James George Frazer, The Golden BoughNote
The verb also runs the other way. To branch a felled tree is to remove its limbs, the opposite of putting out branches. James George Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890) describes a custom in which people "cut down a young pear-tree in the forest, branch it, and carry it home."
- 15In mathematics, any of the separate parts of a curve that stretch outward without limit.
The two branches of the hyperbola approach their asymptotes but never touch them.
One branch of the curve rises steeply while the other levels off.
Note
Geometry uses the word for each unbounded piece of a curve. A hyperbola is the standard case: it has two branches, separate pieces that open in opposite directions and run off without limit. The word keeps them together as parts of one curve, so you speak of the branches of a hyperbola, not of two curves.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A hyperbola consists of two separate, unbounded pieces opening in opposite directions. openstax.org
- The separate pieces are branches of one hyperbola. openstax.org
- 16A local congregation of the LDS Church, usually smaller than a ward.
- 17In graph theory, a path whose inner vertices each have degree two and whose two end vertices have a degree other than two.
- 18To impose discipline on a trade union member at a meeting of the local branch.
- 19The certificate of qualification issued by Trinity House that entitles a pilot to take navigational charge of ships in British waters.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle English branche, from Old French branche, from Late Latin branca ('footprint', later also 'paw, claw'), which is of unknown origin. It is perhaps of Celtic origin, and if so may be related to words like Lithuanian rankà ('hand') and Old Church Slavonic rǫka ('hand'). The verb comes from the noun.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- English branch derives from Middle English branche. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English noun derives from Old French branche, ultimately from Late Latin branca. en.wiktionary.org
- Late Latin branca meant footprint and later paw or claw. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate origin of branca is unknown. en.wiktionary.org
- A Celtic origin is a proposed possibility. en.wiktionary.org
- Under that hypothesis, possible relatives include Lithuanian rankà and Old Church Slavonic rǫka, both meaning hand. en.wiktionary.org
- The verb derives from the noun. en.wiktionary.org