breadcrumb

/ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/

//ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"breadcrumb" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“breadcrumb” is uncommon English (frequency #88,146 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#88,146
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tiny piece of bread, either one that falls from bread as it is cut or eaten, or one made deliberately by crumbling bread.

Corpus desk

Index EN-breadcrumb · breadcrumb · English

breadcrumb · rank #88,146 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #88,146
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH Braham

Nearest frequency peer: Braham (-2 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “breadcrumb”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “breadcrumb” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for breadcrumb
PropertyValue
Headwordbreadcrumb
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/
Letters10
Frequency rank#88,146
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “breadcrumb” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).breadcrumbfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Braham” (#88,144), “bouton” (#88,143), “brillo” (#88,149). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “breadcrumb” is #88,146. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

breadcrumb is uncommon English at frequency #88,146 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for breadcrumb, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From bread + crumb. The computing and figurative senses allude to the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, where Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to find the way back home when venturing into the woods. The correct English form is breadcrumb, spelled B-R-E-A-D-C-R-U-M-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    A tiny piece of bread, either one that falls from bread as it is cut or eaten, or one made deliberately by crumbling bread.
  2. 2
    A single link in a chain indicating the hierarchical location of a directory, web page or similar, used as a navigation aid.
  3. 3
    A fragment of data that serves to log the actions taken by a program, used in debugging.
  4. 4
    One in a series of clues leading to a person or place.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how breadcrumb appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Breadcrumbs usually look something like this: "Home > About Us > Staff" and are positioned near the top navigation. […] The words in the breadcrumbs are links to pages at higher levels of the website.
  2. If you believe the system can merrily proceed despite an assertion failure, code the exception handler to log the error, leaving debugging breadcrumbs behind, and return.

Etymology

From bread + crumb. The computing and figurative senses allude to the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, where Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to find the way back home when venturing into the woods.

Synonyms

crumb

This word in other languages

miga(Español)miette(Français)Brotkrümel(Deutsch)migalha(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "breadcrumb"?
"breadcrumb" is spelled B-R-E-A-D-C-R-U-M-B. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/.
What does "breadcrumb" mean?
As a noun, "breadcrumb" means: A tiny piece of bread, either one that falls from bread as it is cut or eaten, or one made deliberately by crumbling bread.
How do you pronounce "breadcrumb"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "breadcrumb" is /ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "breadcrumb"?
From bread + crumb. The computing and figurative senses allude to the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, where Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to find the way back home when venturing into the woods. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "breadcrumb", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

blustering#88,132Billericay#88,125carotenoid#88,180circularly#88,206

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list