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PlainSpell

brood

/bɹud/noun, adjective, verb

brood is spelled B-R-O-O-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, brood means “The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of brood is broods.

How many letters and syllables are in brood?

Letters5: B-R-O-O-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is brood?

Brood appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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).

How do you pronounce brood?

  • UK /bɹuːd/
  • British /bɹʉwd/
  • US /bɹud/

Brood has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-brood.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with brood?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as brood from its last stressed vowel (/ud/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: dobro, brodo.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of brood

  • broods plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • brooding participle, present
  • brooded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does brood mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.

  2. 2

    The young of any egg-laying creature, especially if produced at the same time.

  3. 3

    The eggs and larvae of social insects such as bees, ants and some wasps, especially when gathered together in special brood chambers or combs within the colony.

  4. 4

    The children in one family; offspring.

  5. 5

    That which is bred or produced; breed; species.

    […] flocks of the airy brood, Cranes, geese or long-neck'd swans, here, there, proud of their pinions fly […]

  6. 6

    Parentage.

  7. 7

    Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.

  8. 8

    A large number or crowd of people, animals, or objects.

adjective

  1. 1

    Kept or reared for breeding.

    brood ducks

verb

  1. 1

    To keep an egg warm to make it hatch.

    In some species of birds, both the mother and father brood the eggs.

  2. 2

    To protect (something that is gradually maturing); to foster.

    Under the rock was a midshipman fish, brooding a mass of eggs.

  3. 3

    (typically with over, on or about) To dwell upon one's thoughts moodily and at length, mainly alone.

    He sat brooding over the upcoming battle, fearing the outcome.

  4. 4

    To be bred.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Brood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcouvée (the young of certain animals), marmaille (the children in one family), couver (1. to keep an egg warm), protéger (2. to protect), se morfondre, broyer du noir (3. to dwell upon moodily and at length)
Portugueseninhada (the young of certain animals), prole (the children in one family), chocar (1. to keep an egg warm), ruminar, cismar (3. to dwell upon moodily and at length)
Spanishcría (the young of certain animals), prole (the children in one family), empollar, enclocar, encluecar (1. to keep an egg warm), nidada (the young of any egg-laying creature)
Germanbrüten (1. to keep an egg warm), grübeln (3. to dwell upon moodily and at length)

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 brood come from?

From Middle English brood, brod, from Old English brōd (“brood; foetus; breeding, hatching”), from Proto-Germanic *brōduz (“heat, breeding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁- (“breath, mist, vapour, steam”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after brood