BREED Synonyms: 210 Similar and Opposite Words

breed 1 of 2

noun

Definition of breed

as in type

a number of persons or things that are grouped together because they have something in common some people say that honest politicians are a rare breed

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Relevance

breed

2 of 2

verb

ˈbrēd

as in to reproduce

to bring forth offspring rabbits will breed very frequently unless they're kept separated

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as in to raise

to bring to maturity through care and education he was bred to a life in the military by his father, himself an army captain

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to cause

to be the cause of (a situation, action, or state of mind) this habit of favoring one employee over the others will breed resentment

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to sleep

to engage in sexual intercourse cats breeding outside our window made a horrible racket last night

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as in to plant

to set permanently in the consciousness or mind-set parents who breed in their children a deep respect for people of all classes

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of breed

Noun

The porous bones of an invasive starfish breed that has devastated shellfish and seaweed farms, says Star’s Tech founder Seungchan Yang. — Martin Cizmar, Time, 15 Oct. 2026 The industry paradox is that the complexity and speed of this new breed of attack, combined with the scarcity of security talent, are leading some organizations to solely rely on AI automation. — Carlos Morales, Forbes.com, 13 Oct. 2026

Verb

Such seeming futility has bred disillusionment among some of the student body. — Savannah Walsh, Vanity Fair, 14 Oct. 2026 The conservancy is currently working to release a group of ploughshare tortoises bred there after the species was close to extinction because of poaching. — Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for breed

Recent Examples of Synonyms for breed

Noun

The latest salvo is a two-week ad campaign launching Thursday in the Atlanta and Macon markets, the first broadcast buy of its kind for the caucus.

— Adam Beam, AJC.com, 15 Oct. 2026
Non-essential workers—executives, administrators, management of all kinds—disappeared into Zoom en masse across the country.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of kind

Verb

Made using flexible materials, the model reproduced important features of the natural stinger’s pumping cycle, helping confirm how the valves deform and squeeze past each other.

— Mike McRae October 12, New Atlas, 13 Oct. 2026
That would reproduce the operating model companies are trying to improve.

— Jason Wojahn, Forbes.com, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of reproduce

Verb

Japan has also raised concern over China's gradual escalation of its military activity around remote Japanese islands in the Pacific Ocean.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 20 Oct. 2026
Still, Converse’s sales hemorrhage raises fair questions about whether this is more than a cyclical decline.

— Phil Wahba, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of raise

Verb

Fault currents, which can fry components and cause dangerous arc flashes, are one challenge, requiring new protection measures and solid-state circuit breakers.

— Alex Pasternack, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Annual deep insights can then validate those trends, providing insight without causing survey fatigue.

— Ted Kitterman, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of cause

Verb

The cars need to charge for about fifty minutes every six to eight hours—a cycle under way twenty-four hours a day, because a Waymo does not sleep at night.

— Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
In the premium version of the app, Health Guardian also monitors blood pressure, insulin resistance, and sleeping trends.

— Andrew Gebhart, PC Magazine, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of sleep

Verb

Reduced tillage or no-till was used by 91 percent of participating growers; 56 percent planted cover crops.

— Alexandra Harrell, Footwear News, 15 Oct. 2026
And so the fungi then take up these nutrients and move them through these vast networks and feed them to plant roots.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of plant

Noun

Hottest genres in Spain As in the rest of the world, dramas – across a wide spectrum of crime, suspense and fantasy to family drama – proved the hottest genre, weighing in as half the premieres during that period (15 titles).

— Annika Pham, Variety, 15 Oct. 2026
Chow followed it with Kung Fu Hustle (2004), another genre-blending smash that earned more than $100 million worldwide and cemented his reputation as one of Hong Kong’s greatest comedy-action hitmakers.

— Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of genre

Verb

View this post on Instagram Because of the news of her divorce, the post trickled through the celebrity gossip outlets, and that coverage in turn propagated the post through Google search.

— Mia Sato, The Verge, 15 Oct. 2026
The flow of the attacks was (1) finding targets, (2) gaining code execution, (3) establishing inference, and (4) propagating to new hosts.

— Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 14 Oct. 2026