breadth
part of speech
noun (breadth, breadths)
meaning for a pupil
1) Breadth is how wide something is; its width from side to side. tree →
2) Breadth is how many different things something includes, as in «breadth of knowledge». tree →
3) «By a hair's breadth» means only just, by a very tiny amount. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths, breadth is another word for width: area of a rectangle = length × breadth. In school reports, «breadth of curriculum» means many subjects. In stories, someone escapes «by a hair's breadth». Phrases: length and breadth, the length and breadth of, a hair's breadth, breadth of knowledge.
examples
- The pool is 25 m long and 10 m in breadth. tree →
- The area is length × breadth: 6 × 4 = 24 square metres. tree →
- She travelled the length and breadth of the country. tree →
- The ball missed the goal by a hair's breadth. tree →
- The teacher has a great breadth of knowledge. tree →
- Measure the length and the breadth of your desk. tree →
- That time he almost touched it—no, he missed it by a hair’s breadth! tree →
note
Spelling trap: «breadth» has a d before th; say BREDTH. The adjective is «broad». In maths, breadth = width; the perimeter of a rectangle is 2 × (length + breadth). Do not confuse with «breath» (air) or «bread».
In the corpora
- Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each board.
- And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.
- Four-square it shall be and double: a span shall be the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof.
- The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits the breadth of each curtain; the eleven curtains had one measure.
- Ten cubits was the length of a board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each board.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «breadth» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.