breadboard
noun, verb
breadboard is a noun meaning “A cutting board, especially for cutting bread” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-R-E-A-D-B-O-A-R-D, and it appears about once in every 9 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of breadboard is breadboards.
What does breadboard mean?
noun
- 1
A cutting board, especially for cutting bread.
- 2
A pull-out cutting board underneath a counter, found in many kitchens.
- 3
A device used to build a (usually temporary) prototype of an electronic circuit and for experimenting with circuit designs. Both solder and solderless versions are available; the solderless type are easily reusable.
verb
- 1
To set up (an electronic device) on a breadboard.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce breadboard?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-breadboard.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of breadboard
- breadboards plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- bread board
- breadboarding participle, present
- breadboarded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is breadboard?
Breadboard appears about once in every 9 million words in written English, the 90,432nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with breadboard
Also written: bread board (one word or two).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Breadboard in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Schneidebrett , Steckplatine, Steckbrett, Steckboard, Protoboard |
| Spanish | tabla de cortar |
| French | platine d'expérimentation, platine de prototypage |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does breadboard come from?
From bread + board. Regarding definition 3: the etymology is either that electric circuits used to be prototyped on actual bread boards (definition 1) populated with nails, or that solder breadboards have lots of holes and are usually brown (they visually resemble a slice of bread), or a merging of the two. The etymology is less obvious today given the popularity of solderless breadboards.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).