broad
adjective
of great breadth.
broad
1 American
[brawd]
/ brɔd /
adjective
broader,
comparative
broadest
superlative
-
of great breadth.
The river was too broad to swim across.
- Antonyms:
- narrow
-
measured from side to side.
The desk was three feet broad.
-
of great extent; large.
the broad expanse of ocean.
-
We awoke to broad daylight.
-
not limited or narrow; of extensive range or scope.
A modern doctor must have a broad knowledge of medicine.
-
A broad interpretation of the law tempers justice with mercy.
-
main or general.
the broad outlines of a subject.
-
plain or clear.
Her remark was a broad hint of her feelings.
-
He smirked at the broad joke.
- Synonyms:
- gross
-
(of conversation) rough; countrified.
-
unconfined; unbridled; unrestrained;
It was a hilarious evening of broad mirth.
-
(of pronunciation) strongly dialectal.
He wore kilts and had a broad Scots accent.
-
Phonetics. (of a transcription) using one basic symbol to represent each phoneme.
-
broad a, the a- sound when used in lieu of the more common a- sound in such words as half, can't, and laugh.
adverb
noun
broads
plural
-
the broad part of anything.
-
Slang.
-
Usually Offensive. a term used to refer to a woman.
-
a promiscuous woman.
-
-
Movies, Television. Often broads. an incandescent or fluorescent lamp used as a general source of light in a studio.
-
a gold coin of England and Scotland, issued by James I and Charles I and equal to 20 shillings.
idioms
-
broad on the quarter, bearing 135° to the heading of a vessel.
-
broad on the bow, bearing 45° to the heading of a vessel.
-
broad on the beam, bearing 90° to the heading of a vessel.
Broad
2
American
[brawd]
/ brɔd /
noun
broad
British
/ brɔːd /
adjective
-
having relatively great breadth or width
-
of vast extent; spacious
a broad plain
-
(postpositive) from one side to the other
four miles broad
-
of great scope or potential
that invention had broad applications
-
not detailed; general
broad plans
-
clear and open; full (esp in the phrase broad daylight )
-
obvious or plain
broad hints
-
liberal; tolerant
a broad political stance
-
widely spread; extensive
broad support
-
outspoken or bold
a broad manner
-
vulgar; coarse; indecent
a broad joke
-
unrestrained; free
broad laughter
-
(of a dialect or pronunciation) consisting of a large number of speech sounds characteristic of a particular geographical area
a broad Yorkshire accent
-
finance denoting an assessment of liquidity as including notes and coin in circulation with the public, banks' till money and balances, most private-sector bank deposits, and sterling bank-deposit certificates Compare narrow
broad money
-
phonetics
-
of or relating to a type of pronunciation transcription in which symbols correspond approximately to phonemes without taking account of allophonic variations
-
the long vowel in English words such as father , half , as represented in the received pronunciation of Southern British English
-
-
amounting to the same thing; without advantage either way
noun
-
the broad part of something
-
slang
-
a girl or woman
-
a prostitute
-
-
dialect a river spreading over a lowland See also Broads
-
dialect a shallow lake
-
a wood-turning tool used for shaping the insides and bottoms of cylinders
adverb
broad
More Idioms
Sensitive Note
When used to refer to a woman, broad is usually perceived as insulting. The meaning “promiscuous woman” is probably the earlier sense.
Synonym Usage
See wide.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of broad
First recorded before 1000; Middle English bro(a)d, Old English brād; cognate with Dutch breed, German breit, Old Norse breithr, Gothic braiths
Explanation
The adjective broad boasts an extensive — you might even say broad — array of subtly different meanings including wide, spacious, far-reaching, vague, and unsubtle. It's kind of funny that the word broad can communicate such an expansive range of ideas since expansive is, in fact, a synonym for broad. This adjective can be used to describe actual physical spaces. A broad highway, for example, would be difficult to cross because of all the cars in the many lanes of the road. The word can also be used more figuratively. American history covers a broad range of topics and events. A broad-minded person is open to new ideas, while broad humor aims for a mass audience with obvious gags and stunts.
Vocabulary lists containing broad
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The Star Spangled Banner
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The firms will use the tokenized assets for a broad set of transactions on Wednesday, including collateral transfers, repo transactions and equity trades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
These offices run parallel to the agency’s substantive work, addressing broad management issues and conducting investigations of fraud both in and around the agency.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
"So far, we're not seeing broad spillovers of higher energy prices," Macklem said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
Instead of painting a broad picture that included all leading forms of content distribution — movie theaters, broadcast and cable television as well as streaming platforms — the states zeroed in on three distinct slices.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
The massive prison gate opened and we were in the outside world, spinning along broad city streets.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Broad adoption of alternative assets is indeed the administration’s goal.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
The project was a collaboration among researchers at Harvard, the Broad Institute, DNA Script, and later POSTECH.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Broad benchmarks, and the hyperscalers, regained some ground by Tuesday afternoon, but the carnage in chip stocks remained.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
A Broad visitor experience team member, whose first name is Ash, was especially touched by a wish written in Spanish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Broad and strong, she was obviously a servant, but when she raised the lantern, Pinmei gasped again, this time in surprise.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
“Us old broads are trying to learn the new technology because, I mean, we’re kind of trapped,” said Linda Harner, whom I met at the Culver City Senior Center, where she takes a Spanish class.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2022
There were broads smiles and a joyful unity.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2022
This is a workout for ladies, by which she means older broads who might appreciate the occasional low-impact leg lifts.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 9, 2019
“I think they just bonded over overcoming their experiences, and being great broads, and being tremendous mothers,” she explained.
From Fox News ● Nov. 30, 2018
The great stronghold of the otter is the broads of Norfolk, where, in the sluggish, reedy water, he can get p. 56plenty of eels, snails, and so forth.
From Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter by Walter, James Conway
Particle physics has a long history of producing technologies that later find broader uses.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
Thinking Machines’s push into the decentralized ecosystem of open-weights AI models comes amid a broader industry backlash against the “walled garden” approach of frontier labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
He expects the broader AI supply chain will benefit, keeping earnings revisions more positive for longer.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Totoro’s real launch into pop culture’s stratosphere came a year later, when NTV brought his namesake movie to a broader audience, exploding its fandom beyond Japan.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
His shoulders seemed broader, and I wondered if it was possible for a teenagers shoulders to broaden in a week.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Well, okay: In the absolute broadest possible sense, the photos are about her kids growing up.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
Streamers are now faced with having to assemble the broadest range of content on their platforms to keep subscribers onboard for longer.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
The current account is the broadest indicator of a country’s trading and investing relationship with other nations, and a deficit may reflect a low level of national savings relative to investment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
Speaking as the public hearings came to a close, Baroness Hallett defended the cost and time taken, saying the terms of reference set by Johnson were the "broadest of any public inquiry to date".
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
To reach Australia/New Guinea from the Asian mainland at that time still required crossing a minimum of eight channels, the broadest of which was at least 50 miles wide.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
