Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɹɔːd/Category:English 1-syllable words#BROADCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROAD
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɹɔd/Category:English 1-syllable words#BROADCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROAD
  • (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /bɹɑd/Category:English 1-syllable words#BROADCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROAD
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /bɹoːd/Category:English 1-syllable words#BROADCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROAD

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BROAD
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /brɔɖ/, (spelling pronunciation) /broɖ/Category:English 1-syllable words#BROADCategory:English 1-syllable words#BROADCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROAD
• Rhymes: -ɔːdCategory:Rhymes:English/ɔːd#BROADCategory:Rhymes:English/ɔːd/1 syllable#BROAD

The failure of the /ɔː/ vowel of Middle English to shift to Modern /əʊ/ during the Great Vowel Shift is irregular and has not been conclusively explained; compare the similarly mysterious obsolete pronunciation of groat as /ɡɹɔːt/.

Adjective

broad (comparative broader, superlative broadest)Category:English lemmas#BROADCategory:English adjectives#BROADCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BROADCategory:Pages with entries#BROADCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BROAD

1. Wide in extent or scope.

   three feet broadCategory:English terms with collocations#BROAD

   the broad expanse of oceanCategory:English terms with collocations#BROAD

   • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Comic”, in Letters and Social Aims (The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson; VIII), Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, published 1903, page 130:

     Thus Falstaff, in Shakspeare, is a character of the broadest comedy, giving himself unreservedly to the senses, coolly ignoring the Reason, whilst he invokes its name, pretending to patriotism and to parental virtues, not with any intent to deceive, but only to make the fun perfect by enjoying the confusion betwixt reason and the negation of reason,—in other words, the rank rascaldom he is calling by its name.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 8 May 2025:

     Julia Farrington, head of arts at Index on Censorship, argues that extra powers to ban violent videos online will "end up too broad and open to misapplication, which would damage freedom of expression".

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 3, archived from the original on 11 May 2025, page 21:

     Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 2015 September 11, “Hotspots of Malaria Transmission in the Peruvian Amazon: Rapid Assessment through a Parasitological and Serological Survey”, in PLOS ONE‎, →DOI, archived from the original on 12 March 2024:

     The criterion for positivity was determined for each antigen of each species applying a mixture model to the PP data which assumed two inherent Gaussian distributions: a narrow distribution or seronegatives, and a broader distribution of seropositives.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 2025 November 16, Daniel Altschuler, Javier Corrales, “How government repression is born – and how to resist it”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 24 December 2025:

     To meet it, pro-democracy organizations, universities and law firms must bravely speak up against abuses of power while building the broadest possible coalition to stand up for fundamental rights.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

2. Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full.
   • 1720, William Bartlet, a sermon:

     broad and open day

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • May 12, 1860, Eliza Watson, Witches and witchcraft (in Once A Week, No. 46.)

     crushing the minds of its victims in the broad and open day

3. Having a large measure of any thing or quality; unlimited; unrestrained.
   • 1693, [John Locke], “§140”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:

     a broad mixture of falsehood

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

4. Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged.
   • 1819, D. Daggett, Sturges v. Crowninshield:

     The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1859, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster: An Oration On the Occasion of the Dedication of the Statue of Mr. Webster,:

     in a broad, statesmanlike, and masterly way

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
5. Plain; evident.

   a broad hintCategory:English terms with collocations#BROAD

6. General rather than specific.

   to be in broad agreementCategory:English terms with collocations#BROAD

7. (writingCategory:en:Writing#BROAD) Unsubtle; obvious.
   • 2018 April 22, “Journey into Night” (39:17 from the start), in Westworld, season 2, episode 1, spoken by Maeve Millay and Lee Sizemore (Thandie Newton and Simon Quarterman), via HBO:

     Lee: I wrote that line for you. Maeve: A bit broad, if you ask me.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

8. Free; unrestrained; unconfined.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     as broad and general as the casing air

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

9. (datedCategory:English dated terms#BROAD) Gross; coarse; indelicate.

   a broad compliment; a broad joke; broad humourCategory:English terms with collocations#BROAD

10. (of an accent) Strongly regional.

    She still has a broad Scottish accent, despite moving to California 20 years ago.Category:English terms with usage examples#BROAD

11. (Gaelic languages) Velarized, i.e. not palatalized.

Noun

broad (plural broads)Category:English lemmas#BROADCategory:English nouns#BROADCategory:English countable nouns#BROADCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BROADCategory:Pages with entries#BROADCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BROAD

1. (UKCategory:British English#BROAD) A shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk.
2. A lathe tool for turning down the insides and bottoms of cylinders.^[1]
3. (UKCategory:British English#BROAD, historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#BROAD) A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656.
4. (filmCategory:en:Film#BROAD, televisionCategory:en:Television#BROAD) A kind of floodlight.
   • 1974, The Video Handbook, page 71:

     […] fresnel spotlights, old-type broads, sky-pans, cone-lights, etc.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1976, Herbert Zettl, Television Production Handbook, volume 10, page 105:

     Some broads have barn doors (see page 115) to block gross light spill into other set areas; others have even an adjustable beam, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 2015, Jim Owens, Television Production, page 194:

     Light bounced from large white surfaces (e.g., matte reflector boards, or a white ceiling). Floodlights include scoops, broads, floodlight, banks, internally reflected units, strip lights, and cyclorama lights.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
5. (slangCategory:English slang#BROAD, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BROAD) A playing card.
   • 1927, Arthur Morris Binstead, The works of A. M. Binstead, volume 2, page 118:

     I reckon as old Sol couldn't ha' lived without a pack of broads. If he couldn't find anybody to play with him, he'd play alone, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

Noun

broad (plural broads)Category:English lemmas#BROADCategory:English nouns#BROADCategory:English countable nouns#BROADCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BROADCategory:Pages with entries#BROADCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BROAD

2. (USCategory:American English#BROAD, datedCategory:English dated terms#BROAD) A prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prostitute

   • 1925, John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, 1st section, page 94:

     “Now we go up Bowery Street look at broads. Me pay.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

4. (USCategory:American English#BROAD, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#BROAD, slangCategory:English slang#BROAD, sometimes datedCategory:English dated terms#BROAD) A woman or girl.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:woman, Thesaurus:girl

   • 1950, Albert Mannheimer, Born Yesterday, spoken by Harry Brock:

     They always hook you in the end, them broads. This whole trouble is on account of a dame reads a book.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 1974, Oscar Williams, Michael Allin, Truck Turner, spoken by Jerry:

     Hey, man, Truck, you got to understand, she's a no class broad and you a gross son of a bitch. Naturally, she don't like you.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 1984, Charles Robert Anderson, The Grunts, Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 157:

     The grunts resumed their bitching at the heat, the hills, and the lack of cold beer and hot broads.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

   • 1986, Tim Kazurinsky, Denise DeClue, About Last Night, spoken by Bernie (Jim Belushi):

     I mean, what the fuck. If a guy wants to get on with a broad on a more or less stable basis, who's to say to him no? Huh? A lot of these broads, you know, you just don't know, you know. I mean, a young woman in today's society, by the time she's 22–23, you don't know where the fuck she's been.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROAD

See also

• Appendix:English adjectives with derived terms in -en and -ness

Mutation

Mutation

Derived terms

• broadel