Breed

How to spell breed

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce breed

What does breed mean?

1. verbTo produce offspring, or to keep animals so that they reproduce, often to develop particular qualities.
2. nounA particular variety or line of animal developed and maintained for specific characteristics.

Breed in a sentence

• verb

  The farmer learned how to breed cattle for higher milk yields.

• noun

  The collie is a herding breed valued for its intelligence.

• verb

  These conditions can breed resentment among the staff.

• noun

  She researched every breed before choosing a family dog.

Where does breed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word that comes from the Old English verb brēdan, which meant to nourish, to keep warm, or to hatch young by sitting on them. It is closely tied to the Old English noun brōd, the source of the modern word brood, since warming a clutch of eggs was the original act of breeding. The wider Germanic family shares the same root, with relatives in old forms of German and Dutch all pointing back to the idea of warmth and incubation. Over the centuries the sense broadened from literally hatching eggs to producing and rearing offspring in general, and then to the noun meaning a particular line or variety of animal kept for its qualities. The double vowel spelled 'ee' simply marks the long vowel that English settled on, and the word has stayed phonetically tidy ever since, which is why it rarely trips people up.

How the word is built

• breed (from Old English brēdan: to nourish, keep warm, hatch); native root with no prefix or suffix