branch
pronunciation
How to pronounce branch in British English:
UK [brɑːntʃ]
How to pronounce branch in American English:
US [bræntʃ]
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- Noun:
- an administrative division of some larger or more complex organization
- a division of a stem, or secondary stem arising from the main stem of a plant
- a part of a forked or branching shape
- a natural consequence of development
- a stream or river connected to a larger one
- any projection that is thought to resemble an arm
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- Verb:
- grow and send out branches or branch-like structures
- divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork
Word Origin
- branch
- branch: [13] Branch comes via Old French branche from late Latin branca ‘paw’, but its ultimate origins are not known. In other Romance languages it retains more of its original Latin sense (Spanish branca ‘claw’, for example, and Romanian brinca ‘hand, paw’). The semantic connection between ‘limb of a tree’ and ‘appendage of a person or animal’ is fairly straightforward (compare BOUGH).
- branch (n.)
- c. 1300, braunch, "limb of a tree" (also used of things analogous to it, especially geographic features), from Old French branche "branch, bough, twig; branch of a family" (12c.), from Late Latin branca "footprint," later "a claw, paw," which is of unknown origin, probably from Gaulish. The connecting notion would be the shape (compare pedigree). Replaced native bough. Meaning "local office of a business" is first recorded 1817, from earlier sense of "component part of a system" (1690s).
- branch (v.)
- "send out shoots or new limbs," late 14c., also, of blood vessels, family trees, etc., "to be forked," from branch (n.). Meaning "to spread out from a center, radiate" is from c. 1400. Related: Branched; branching.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Bank of china plans to open another branch soon .
- 2. One shows all the balances of a customer at the branch .
- 3. It became a fourth branch of government , an industry and a circus .
- 4. A branch snapped off the tree in the wind .
- 5. Citi 's china chief executive andrew au said the bank 's branch and staff expansion had pushed up expenses .