Breed can mean several related things:

When used as a verb, to breed means to produce offspring. Animals breed when they mate and have babies. Farmers breed cattle, horses, or chickens to raise livestock. Dog breeders carefully select which dogs to breed together, hoping the puppies will have desirable traits like a friendly temperament or a particular coat color.

People also use breed to describe creating something through careful selection over time. For centuries, farmers have bred crops to make them tastier, hardier, or more productive. When you hear about “breeding roses” or “breeding corn,” it means selecting plants with the best qualities and growing new generations from them.

As a noun, a breed is a specific type of animal within a species. Golden retrievers, poodles, and beagles are all different breeds of dog. Each breed has distinctive characteristics that make it recognizable. Holstein and Angus are breeds of cattle. When someone asks “What breed is your dog?”, they want to know what type of dog it is.

The word can also describe types of people or things in a more poetic sense. You might hear about “a rare breed of teacher” who makes every subject fascinating, or “a new breed of spacecraft” designed for deep space exploration. Here, breed suggests a particular type with special qualities.