bread
Pluralbreads
Pluralbreads
Formsbreads, breading, breaded
- 1A food made by baking a dough of flour or meal, often with yeast; also, a particular kind of this food.
Bread has been a staple food in many cultures for thousands of years.
The baker pulled warm loaves of bread from the oven at dawn.
UsageSay some bread, a slice of bread or a loaf of bread (not
incorrect: a bread) for the food itself. - 2
- 3Food in general; sustenance; the means of supporting life.
He toiled from dawn to dusk just to earn his bread.
After the factory closed, he took any work he could find to put bread on the table for his four children.
UsageSet phrases: earn your bread, put bread on the table, our daily bread.
Similarliving, livelihood, sustenance, food, keep
Note
Here one staple stands for everything that keeps a person alive. The King James Bible of 1611 gives it its most familiar form: "Give us this day our daily bread," where the request is for a day's living, not a loaf. Staff of life carries the same idea. Read bread this way whenever it appears beside shelter, work or survival rather than beside butter.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The King James Bible was first published in 1611. wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk
- The quoted wording occurs in the King James Bible, Matthew 6:11. en.wikisource.org
- Daily bread can mean the necessities that sustain physical life. en.wiktionary.org
- Staff of life describes bread or another staple as a support for life. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4Money, especially cash in hand.
She made serious bread flipping houses last year.
They were short on bread after the move.
Similardough, cash, dosh, brass, lolly
Note
Slang heard in American English and in Cockney. James Baldwin's Another Country (1962) has a man hoping someone will "lay enough bread on him for a meal," and Billy Joel's "Piano Man" (1973) has bar patrons dropping bread into the pianist's jar. Typical verbs are lay on, save up and get. It belongs to casual talk about cash, not to formal writing about finance.
- 5A piece of embroidery or decorative needlework; a braid.
Similarbraid, embroidery, needlework
Note
The noun shares its braid origin with the netting verb and names the finished work rather than the action. It covers interlaced or decorative needlework, and today the same piece would simply be called a braid. That is why this spelling looks so out of place for it.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The embroidery noun and netting verb share their origin as variants of braid. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun denotes a finished piece of embroidery or braid. en.wiktionary.org
- 6To form cord or thread into meshes, as when making a net.
Similarweave, knot, net, braid
Note
Braid in disguise: this verb is a variant of braid, from Middle English breden and Old English brēdan, "to braid." That makes it a third word behind the spelling, unrelated to the loaf or to the old word for breadth. Netting is braiding cord into an open mesh, and the verb takes the finished net as its object: to bread a net is to make one.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The verb is a variant of braid, descending through Middle English breden from Old English brēdan, meaning to braid. en.wiktionary.org
- This represents a third etymologically distinct word, separate from bread meaning food and bread meaning breadth. en.wiktionary.org
- Netting interlaces threads into an open mesh. en.wikipedia.org
- The verb can take net as its object, meaning to make the net. upload.wikimedia.org
- 7Breadth; the extent of something measured from side to side.
Note
A different word that happens to share the loaf's spelling. It comes from Middle English brede and Old English brǣdu, "breadth," and its relatives are Scots brede or breid, German Breite and Dutch breedte, all meaning width. It is obsolete in general English and survives in UK dialect, notably in Scotland. In ordinary modern writing, use breadth.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Bread meaning breadth has a separate etymology from the food word. en.wiktionary.org
- It descends from Middle English brede and Old English brǣdu. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English brǣdu meant breadth or width. en.wiktionary.org
- Scots brede and breid belong to the same family of words for breadth. en.wiktionary.org
- German Breite and Dutch breedte are related words meaning width. en.wiktionary.org
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English bred, from Old English brēad ("fragment, morsel, crumb," also "bread"), from Proto-Germanic *braudą ("cooked food, leavened bread"), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to boil, seethe" (see brew). It may alternatively or partly come from a root meaning "to split, break," so it is perhaps a conflation of the two. Related words include Dutch brood, German Brot, and Swedish bröd.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- Bread descends through Middle English bred and Old English brēad from Proto-Germanic *braudą. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English brēad had senses referring to fragments, morsels or crumbs. ijllc.eu
- Old English brēad also meant bread. orca.cardiff.ac.uk
- Cooked food and leavened bread are documented reconstructed glosses for Proto-Germanic *braudą. en.wiktionary.org
- One proposed derivation connects the word with a Proto-Indo-European root meaning boil or seethe and with brew. en.wiktionary.org
- An alternative proposed derivation connects the word with breaking. orca.cardiff.ac.uk
- Dutch brood, German Brot and Swedish bröd are cognates of English bread. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-Germanic *braidį̄ ("breadth") gave Old English brǣdu, which became Middle English brede, meaning "breadth, width, extent." Dutch breedte, German Breite, and Swedish bredd are cognates.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Proto-Germanic *braidį̄ meant “breadth” and gave Old English brǣdu. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English brǣdu became Middle English brede. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English brede meant “breadth, width, extent.” en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch breedte, German Breite, and Swedish bredd are cognates. en.wiktionary.org
The Old English verb brēdan, breġdan, meaning "to braid," became Middle English breden. This word is a variant of braid.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Old English had the verb forms brēdan and breġdan, meaning “to braid.” en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English breden descended from these Old English forms. en.wiktionary.org
- Bread in this sense is a variant of braid. en.wiktionary.org