noun
- An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.
- A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.
- A rest or pause, usually from work.
- A time for students to talk or play.
- A short holiday.
- A temporary split with a romantic partner.
- An interval or intermission between two parts of a performance, for example a theatre show, broadcast, or sports game.
- A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention.
- The beginning (of the morning).
- An act of escaping.
- The separation between lines, paragraphs or pages of a written text.
- A keystroke or other signal that causes a program to terminate or suspend execution.
- A point or condition in a program at which operation may be suspended during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated. A breakpoint.
- A change, particularly the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather.
- :
- A large four-wheeled carriage, having a straight body and calash top, with the driver's seat in front and the footman's behind.
- (equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.
- A short section of music, often between verses, in which some performers stop while others continue.
- The point in the musical scale at which a woodwind instrument is designed to overblow, that is, to move from its lower to its upper register.
- Usu. plural An area along a river that features steep banks, bluffs, or gorges (e.g., Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, US).
Synonyms: crack of dawn, split, breach, gap, space, time-out, day off, time off, playtime, recess
verb
- To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
- To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.
- To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
- To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.
- To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.
- To ruin financially.
- To violate, to not adhere to.
- (of a fever) To pass the most dangerous part of the illness; to go down, in terms of temperature.
- (of a spell of settled weather) To end.
- (of a storm) To begin; to end.
- (of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive.
- To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage.
- To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether.
- To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.
- To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce.
- (of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.
- To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view.
- To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily.
- To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath.
- To disclose or make known an item of news, etc.
- (of a sound) To become audible suddenly.
- To change a steady state abruptly.
- To suddenly become.
- Of a male voice, to become deeper at puberty.
- Of a voice, to alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men generally to go up, in women sometimes to go down; to crack.
- To surpass or do better than (a specific number), to do better than (a record), setting a new record.
- :
- (most often in the passive tense) To demote, to reduce the military rank of.
- To end (a connection), to disconnect.
- (of an emulsion) To demulsify.
- To counter-attack
- To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.
- To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.
- To fail in business; to become bankrupt.
- To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.
- To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.
- To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait.
- To fall out; to terminate friendship.
- To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.
- To suspend the execution of a program during debugging so that the state of the program can be investigated.
Synonyms: crack, fracture, burst, bust, shatter, shear, smash, split, break down, bust, fail, go down, contravene, go against, violate, break in, subject, tame
Pronunciation
About this word
Break is a 2-meaning word in English. Medium-length words often have several interesting anagrams.
This page shows the definition of break along with every other word you can make from its letters. Click the link above to see all anagrams and shorter words formed from the same set of letters.
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Words in word games
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Scrabble
In Scrabble, the valid word lists are the Official Tournament and Club Word List (OTCWL/NWL) for North America and the Collins Scrabble Words (CSW) for international play. Our dictionary covers most words in both lists, but some proper nouns, abbreviations, and offensive terms may differ.
Wordle
Wordle uses its own curated word list that is smaller than the full Scrabble dictionary. If Break appears here, it may or may not be a valid Wordle answer — but it is a real English word regardless.
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