Synonyms of breeding

breeding 1 of 2

noun

ˈbrē-diŋ 

as in lineage

the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended

a family of good breeding that is well respected in the community

Synonyms & Similar Words

• lineage
• ancestry
• pedigree
• origin
• genealogy
• family
• extraction
• descent
• parentage
• birth
• blood
• stock
• strain
• bloodline
• family tree
• line
• succession
• heredity
• relations
• house
• race
• relatives
• kin
• kindred

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• seed
• progeny
• issue
• offspring
• posterity
• child
• son
• heir
• successor
• inheritor

breeding

2 of 2

verb

present participle of breed

1

as in reproducing

to bring forth offspring

rabbits will breed very frequently unless they're kept separated

Synonyms & Similar Words

• reproducing
• propagating
• multiplying
• producing
• procreating
• spawning
• hatching
• generating
• parenting
• having
• siring
• begetting
• mothering
• getting
• engendering
• gendering
• bearing

2

as in raising

to bring to maturity through care and education

he was bred to a life in the military by his father, himself an army captain

Synonyms & Similar Words

• raising
• fostering
• rearing
• nurturing
• teaching
• feeding
• promoting
• nursing
• watching
• cultivating
• educating
• bringing up
• nourishing
• training
• attending
• fathering
• mothering
• schooling
• supplying
• disciplining
• ministering (to)
• instructing
• providing (for)
• furthering
• leading
• mentoring
• preparing
• guiding
• caring (for)
• forwarding
• cradling
• enlightening
• showing
• advancing
• tutoring
• indoctrinating
• minding
• directing
• shepherding
• edifying

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• mistreating
• abusing
• ignoring
• maltreating
• mishandling
• neglecting
• ill-treating
• ill-using
• harming
• injuring
• hurting

3

as in creating

to be the cause of (a situation, action, or state of mind)

this habit of favoring one employee over the others will breed resentment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• creating
• causing
• bringing
• spawning
• generating
• producing
• doing
• prompting
• working
• yielding
• inducing
• making
• effecting
• invoking
• bringing about
• translating (into)
• drawing on
• resulting (in)
• begetting
• giving rise to
• engendering
• promoting
• catalyzing
• effectuating
• introducing
• bringing forth
• bringing on
• occasioning
• encouraging
• establishing
• contributing (to)
• developing
• fostering
• initiating
• founding
• determining
• launching
• pioneering
• cultivating
• beginning
• inaugurating
• starting
• deciding
• instituting
• furthering
• nurturing
• rendering
• advancing
• forwarding
• conducing (to)
• enacting
• fathering
• setting
• setting up
• innovating
• turning out
• nourishing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• limiting
• restricting
• impeding
• controlling
• crushing
• suppressing
• checking
• stifling
• repressing
• smothering
• restraining
• inhibiting
• subduing
• curbing
• retarding
• killing
• quashing
• putting down
• dampening
• arresting
• quelling
• destroying
• squashing
• squelching
• abolishing
• canning
• extinguishing
• cracking down (on)
• liquidating
• clamping down (on)
• quenching
• demolishing
• reining (in)
• stilling
• snuffing (out)

4

as in sleeping

to engage in sexual intercourse

cats breeding outside our window made a horrible racket last night

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sleeping
• mating
• doing it
• having sex
• copulating
• fornicating
• fooling around

5

as in planting

to set permanently in the consciousness or mind-set

parents who breed in their children a deep respect for people of all classes

Synonyms & Similar Words

• planting
• implanting
• inseminating
• rooting
• embedding
• sowing
• lodging
• inculcating
• instilling
• driving
• infixing
• enrooting
• investing
• pounding
• hammering
• inoculating
• entrenching
• infusing
• imbuing
• fixing
• steeping
• suffusing
• ingraining

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of breeding

Noun

That’s a breeding group, Mariolis said, and the Jumping Junction mob is not. — Dewayne Bevil, The Orlando Sentinel, 16 July 2026

Retrieve a Golden volunteer Gretchen Austin told WDTV 5 that Skye had been rescued from a commercial breeding facility before joining the Aho family. — Toria Sheffield, PEOPLE, 12 July 2026

Verb

Refreshing the water every day or two keeps it appealing for birds and helps discourage mosquitoes from breeding. — Jessica Safavimehr, Southern Living, 18 July 2026

Fireworks The cost of the latest artificial intelligence models is increasingly breeding anxiety among finance executives, who have started directing employees to consider open-source alternatives. — Jordan Novet, CNBC, 16 July 2026

Phrases Containing breeding

• breeding ground