breið

Breið is an Icelandic adjective meaning broad or wide. It describes physical width, such as land, rivers, coastlines, or objects, and can also be used metaphorically to indicate breadth of a concept, range, or openness to different possibilities.

The etymology of breið traces to Old Norse breiðr, a common Germanic root that also yielded English broad and German breit. In Icelandic, the form has persisted in modern usage, especially in compounds and place names, where it often signals largeness or expansiveness of a feature.

In Icelandic geography and toponymy, breið appears in several well-known names, such as Breiðamerkurjökull, a glacier in southeast Iceland, and Breiðholt, a large residential district of Reykjavik. The root also occurs in other geographical terms describing wide features, and it remains a productive element in new names and descriptive phrases.

Related terms include breidd, the noun for width or breadth, and the verb breiða, meaning to broaden or spread out. The word instills a sense of extent and is commonly used in everyday language as well as technical, literary, and poetic contexts.