broadbodied

Broadbodied is an English adjective used to describe something that has a broad body or a wide, stout build. The more common spelling is broad-bodied, with a hyphen, but the unhyphenated form broadbodied appears in some compounds and in certain style guides that favor closed forms.

Derived from broad (wide) and bodied (having a body), the term is typically used in descriptive writing, zoology, paleontology, and anatomy to indicate relative body proportions rather than function or behavior.

One well-known use is in the common name of Libellula depressa, the broad-bodied chaser, a dragonfly native to Europe. In field guides and taxonomic descriptions, broad-bodied denotes a form with a comparatively wide thorax and abdomen and a short or broad overall body.

Outside of insects, broadbodied can describe other animals with stout frames or fossils whose trunks are unusually wide, as well as non-biological objects with a broad, rounded body.

Hyphenation and closed forms are both accepted in different publishing styles; writers typically choose broad-bodied in formal text and broadbodied in running prose where space is limited.