Meaning & use
broad stripe
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Meanings
nouncountable
A wide band of color, thread, or material that stands out against a background.
Grammar: Countable: one broad stripe, two broad stripes; use a/a before it.
Patterns
- a broad stripe of something
- with broad stripes
- broad stripes on something
The flag has a broad stripe of blue down the middle.
She wore a sweater with broad stripes in red and cream.
From the air, the fields looked like broad stripes of green and gold.
nouncountablemilitary
A wide band worn on a military uniform to show rank or length of service.
Grammar: Countable and often plural when several bands are worn together.
Patterns
- wear a broad stripe
- earn a broad stripe
- a broad stripe on a sleeve
After five years he finally earned the broad stripe on his sleeve.
The sergeant's uniform showed a broad stripe on each arm.
Word forms
| plural | broad stripes |
|---|
Common combinations
- a broad stripe of color
- A broad stripe of color ran across the wall.
- broad stripes of light
- Broad stripes of light fell through the blinds.
- wear a broad stripe
- Officers wear a broad stripe on the shoulder.
- with broad stripes
- He bought a shirt with broad stripes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- band
- A band is a flat strip of material or color; it is more general and does not suggest width the way broad stripe does.
- stripe
- Stripe is the neutral word for any narrow line; broad stripe stresses that the line is noticeably wide.
Opposites
Word family
- striped adjective
- having stripes, as in a striped shirt
- stripy adjective
- informal word for having many stripes
Commonly confused: broad stripe or strip?
broad stripe vs strip
A strip is a long narrow piece of something, such as paper or land; a stripe is a line of color on a surface.
Practice
Which sentence uses "broad stripe" correctly?
Choose one answer.
"Broad stripe" is a noun phrase meaning a wide band of color, so it fits as the object of "has." The other options wrongly use it as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “broad stripe”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.