Word.ws English Dictionary

cross-breed

cross-breed is the alternative form of crossbreed.

Meaning of crossbreed

Verb

crossbreed (third-person singular simple present crossbreeds, present participle crossbreeding, simple past and past participle crossbred)

  1. (transitive) To produce (an organism) by the mating of individuals of different breeds, varieties, or species; hybridize.
    • Recalling the crossbreeding of the lakeside daisy, he insists, "If we hadn't polluted that population with Ohio plants it might have vanished.1988 April 15, James Krohe Jr., “Where Has All the Flora Gone?”, in Chicago Reader
  2. (intransitive) To mate so as to produce a hybrid; interbreed.
  3. (transitive) To mate (an organism) with another organism so as to produce a hybrid.

See all 4 meanings of crossbreed

Forms of cross-breed

Verb
third-person singular presentcross-breeds
present participlecross-breeding
past participlecross-bred
pastcross-bred
Noun
pluralcross-breeds

Origin of cross-breed

From cross- + breed.

Questions about cross-breed

What is cross-breed the alternative form of?
Cross-breed is the alternative form of crossbreed.

Words near cross-breed in the dictionary

  1. cross-border tickets
  2. cross-bought
  3. cross-bow
  4. cross-bows
  5. cross-bred
  6. cross-breed
  7. cross-breeding
  8. cross-breedings
  9. cross-breeds
  10. cross-browser
  11. cross-buttock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cross-breed (page history and authors); crossbreed (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.

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