Added 9 October 2026
break
/bɹeɪk/ noun
In Latin: cōnfringō, frangō, rumpō Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about break at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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Some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity.
the telephone is an annoying interruption
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An unexpected piece of good luck.
he finally got his big break
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(geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other.
they built it right over a geological fault
verb
Origin
From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). Doublet of bray. Cognates of Germanic origin include Scots brek (“to break”), West Frisian brekke (“to break”), Dutch breken (“to break”), Low German breken (“to break”), German brechen (“to break”), French broyer (“to crush, grind”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break, destroy”), Norwegian brek (“desire, yearning”). Also cognate with Albanian brishtë (“fragile”), Latin frangō (“break, break up, shatter”, verb), whence English fracture and other terms – fragile, frail, fraction, and fragment.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)