DictionaryAI

bread

BRED/bɹɛd/

Pluralbreads

Verbbreads, breading, breaded

7 meanings of bread

Practice

  1. 1
    everyday loafnouncountable or uncountable
    A baked food made from flour and water, often in loaves, or a particular kind of it.

    We bought fresh bread from the bakery this morning.

    She spread butter on a thick slice of bread.

    UsageFor an amount, say a loaf of bread or a piece of bread. A bread can mean a kind of bread.

  2. 2
    coat in crumbsverbtransitive
    To cover food with breadcrumbs before cooking it.

    Bread the chicken before you fry it.

    We bread the fish fillets with crumbs and a little salt.

    UsageYou often see breaded: breaded fish.

    Similarcoat, crumb

  3. 3
    what feeds younouncountable or uncountable
    Food in general, or the things a person needs to stay alive.

    He works hard to earn his daily bread.

    After he lost his job, he did not know how he would earn his bread.

    UsagePut bread on the table means earn enough money to live.

    Similarliving, livelihood, sustenance, food, keep

    Note

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–4

From Old English brēad, which first meant "bit, morsel, crumb" and also "bread." It goes back to older Germanic and Indo-European roots.

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

  • English bread descends from Old English brēad. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English brēad meant bit, morsel or crumb. en.wikipedia.org
  • Both the morsel meaning and the bread meaning occur from the earliest attestations. orca.cardiff.ac.uk
  • The word has Germanic and Indo-European ancestry, although the precise Indo-European derivation is disputed. en.wiktionary.org
Meaning 7

From Old English brǣdu, meaning "breadth, width," from an older Germanic word for breadth.

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

  • Bread in the sense ‘breadth’ derives from Old English brǣdu. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English brǣdu means ‘breadth, width’. gutenberg.org
  • Brǣdu derives from an older Germanic word meaning ‘breadth’. kaikki.org
Meanings 5–6

This is another form of the word braid. In Old English, people said brēdan or breġdan when they meant "to braid."

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts