Word.ws English Dictionary

breve

/bɹiːv/

breve noun: a semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as short.

breve: a semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as...
Image: 1234qwer1234qwer4, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

breve (plural breves)

  1. A semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as short.
    Synonyms:
    micron
    Antonyms:
    macron
  2. A double whole note; a note twice as long as a semibreve.
  3. Any writ or precept under seal, issued out of any court.
    • But what, are you puzzling in your pockets to seek your only memorial among old play bills, letters requesting a meeting of the Faculty, rules of the Speculative Society, syllabus' of lectures—all the miscellaneous contents of a young lawyer's pocket, which contains every thing but brieves and...1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], “I. Being Introductory.”, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James...
  4. A pitta, all of which have more or less short tails.

Noun (2)

breve (plural breves)

  1. An equal mix of espresso and half and half cream.

breve meaning in Malay and Vietnamese

breve in Malay

semicircular diacritical mark
bref, tanda singkat
double whole note
bref, brif

breve in Vietnamese

semicircular diacritical mark
dấu trăng, dấu mũ ngược, dấu á
double whole note
tròn đôi, nốt tròn đôi, nốt vuông

Synonyms of breve

Antonyms

Forms of breve

pluralbreves
alternative formbrieve

Origin of breve

From Middle English breve, variant of bref, from Old French brieve, breve (feminine form of brief, bref), from Latin brevis (“short”).

Borrowed from Italian breve.

Words formed from breve

Phrases with breve

Words that rhyme with breve

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about breve

What does breve mean?
Breve means a semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as short.
What is breve in Malay?
Breve in Malay is bref, tanda singkat, brif. See Breve meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is breve?
Breve is a noun.
How do you pronounce breve?
Breve is pronounced /bɹiːv/.
What is the plural of breve?
The plural of breve is breves.

Words near breve in the dictionary

  1. breunnerite
  2. breunnerites
  3. brev
  4. Brevard
  5. Brevard County
  6. breve
  7. breve rest
  8. breve rests
  9. brevenal
  10. breves
  11. brevet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: breve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-breve.wav.

Cite this entry: “breve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/breve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.