Word.ws English Dictionary

break the mould

break the mould is the alternative spelling of break the mold.

Meaning of break the mold

Verb

break the mold (third-person singular simple present breaks the mold, present participle breaking the mold, simple past broke the mold, past participle broken the mold)

  1. (idiomatic) To depart from a traditional pattern; to defy convention.
    • A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the mould. I tried it and it didn't work for me.1953, A. B. Guthrie Jr., Jack Sher, Shane, spoken by Shane (Alan Ladd)
  2. (idiomatic) To make it impossible for an identical copy to be made.
    • When they made that one, they broke the mold.

Forms of break the mould

third-person singular presentbreaks the mould
present participlebreaking the mould
pastbroke the mould
past participlebroken the mould

Questions about break the mould

What is break the mould the alternative spelling of?
Break the mould is the alternative spelling of break the mold.

Words near break the mould in the dictionary

  1. break the ice
  2. break the internet
  3. break the internets
  4. break the interwebs
  5. break the mold
  6. break the mould
  7. break the news
  8. break the Sabbath
  9. break the seal
  10. break the silence
  11. break the story

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break the mould (page history and authors); break the mold (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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