breaststroke
/ˈbɹɛstˌstɹoʊk/noun, verb
breaststroke is spelled B-R-E-A-S-T-S-T-R-O-K-E. The wrong spelling people search most is breastroke: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 15 of all searches for the word. Breaststroke is a noun meaning “A swimming stroke in which the swimmer lies face down, the arms being swept forward, outward and back under…”. The plural of breaststroke is breaststrokes.
How do you spell breaststroke?
Breaststroke is spelled B-R-E-A-S-T-S-T-R-O-K-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for breaststroke in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
What does breaststroke mean?
noun
- 1
A swimming stroke in which the swimmer lies face down, the arms being swept forward, outward and back under the water and the legs are kicked like a frog's
verb
- 1
To swim using this stroke.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce breaststroke?
- US /ˈbɹɛstˌstɹoʊk/
Breaststroke has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-breaststroke.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of breaststroke
- breaststrokes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- breaststroking participle, present
- breaststroked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is breaststroke?
Breaststroke appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th 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 breaststroke
Also written: breast-stroke (one word or two).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Breaststroke in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | brasse |
| German | Brust, Brustschwimmen , Brust schwimmen |
| Portuguese | nado de peito, bruços, estilo de bruços , nadar de peito |
| Spanish | braza, estilo braza |
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 breaststroke come from?
From breast + stroke.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).