Breve
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as short.
- 2 An equal mix of espresso and half and half cream.
- 3 a diacritical mark (U-shaped) placed over a vowel to indicate a short sound wordnet
- 4 A double whole note; a note twice as long as a semibreve.
- 5 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 bank-notes?"
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- 6 A pitta, all of which have more or less short tails.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"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 bank-notes?"
Etymology
From Middle English breve, variant of bref, from Old French brieve, breve (feminine form of brief, bref), from Latin brevis (“short”).
From Italian breve.
Related phrases
More for "breve"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.