Breeding has several meanings related to procreation:
- In animal husbandry and in horticulture the selection of stock for propagation and the act of insemination by natural or artificial means is called breeding. See Selective breeding, artificial selection, and plant breeding.
- The act of sexual intercourse in animals is sometimes called breeding.
- Breeding refers to the vocation of propagating a particular breed in the hobby of animal fancy.
- Socially, one is said to have "good breeding" if one observes and exhibits the etiquette, proprieties and social mores of the society in which one lives. Also used more exclusively to denote one who comes from a family of the "correct" social class (usually a wealthy class) and exhibits the manners, education, and other characteristics appropriate to that class.
- In engineering, a breeder reactor is a type of nuclear reactor whose fuel does not occur naturally but must be produced or bred within the reactor from some other material. A fusion power plant is also a type of breeder reactor because it must produce its tritium fuel from lithium.
See also