klaō

The verb means simply "to break," but in the New Testament it is used of only one thing: breaking a loaf of bread. Ancient bread was baked in flat, firm rounds, and there was no knife at the table, so a meal began when the host took the loaf, gave thanks, and pulled it apart by hand to pass around. Every time this word appears, that ordinary gesture is in view, and the leftover pieces even get their own name, the broken fragments (κλάσμα).

The same plain action carries enormous weight in the Gospels and the letters. It shows up in three settings:

• at ordinary meals, where the host breaks the loaf to begin eating
• at the Last Supper, where Jesus breaks it and calls it his body
• in the gatherings of the first Christians, who met "to break bread"

A translation renders it plainly as "broke," and rightly so, because the word itself adds nothing ornate. Its depth comes entirely from what is being broken and by whom. In Acts the expression becomes almost a name for what believers did when they came together, and whether that means their celebration of the Lord's Supper, a shared common meal, or both at once is debated. The word does not settle the question; it only reports the action, and the reader has to weigh the setting.