breadcrumb

American  

[bred-kruhm] / ˈbrɛdˌkrʌm /

noun

• breadcrumbs
  plural

1. a crumb of bread, either dried or soft.

2. Also called breadcrumb trail. Digital Technology. Usually breadcrumbs. a sequence of text links on the current page of a website or web-based application, usually at the top, showing the page's location within a hierarchy of content or browsing history and providing a convenient navigational tool.

   Online shoppers can use breadcrumbs to see other products in the same category.

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breadcrumb British  

/ ˈbrɛdˌkrʌm /

noun

1. the soft inner part of bread

2. (plural) bread crumbled into small fragments, as for use in cooking

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verb

1. to coat (food) with breadcrumbs

   egg and breadcrumb the escalopes

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• breadcrumbs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of breadcrumb

First recorded in 1760–70; bread + crumb

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

breadcrumb breadcrumbs

It’s a time travel trip back to childhood — mass entertainment made intimate — with Parsons tossing us scraps of Clark and Mary’s personal histories like a breadcrumb trail.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

Sometimes seasoned simply with salt and pepper, sometimes coated in Shake ’n Bake, that sandy, paprika-tinged breadcrumb mix that crisped into something approximating a crust.

From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2026

Millions of onlookers are attached to their screens, united in their desperation for any new breadcrumb in the case.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026

Each of these edits leaves a unique digital breadcrumb trail and Stamm's lab has developed a suite of tools calibrated to find and follow them.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024

Ged shot breadcrumb arrows after the owls and brought them down, and when they touched the ground there they lay, bone and crumb, all illusion gone.

From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin

A third research team, which includes Piecha and another researcher named Jeffrey Ladish, recently identified close to 1 million digital breadcrumbs from what it believes are OpenAI agents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

"I even ate the breadcrumbs left by the pigeons."

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

To trace the breadcrumbs of this tragedy, readers need critical context.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

Not that it lacks a plan: Retrospectively, you can trace back the breadcrumbs that led toward a conclusion, of sorts — but I can say no more.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026

It was like they’d taken their planned trip into the woods—except then going home would have been as simple as following the breadcrumbs they’d scattered together.

From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu