breaking
/ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/
breaking noun: the act by which something is broken. Also the present participle and gerund of break.
Noun
breaking (countable and uncountable, plural breakings)
- The act by which something is broken.
- We, on the other hand, do not reject the occurrence of breakings of the natural order of things that occur in connection with a prescribed proclamation […]2009, John Renard, Tales of God's Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation, page 53
- A change of a vowel to a diphthong.
- A form of ornamentation in which groups of short notes are used instead of long ones.
- Breakdancing.
- The urban dance genre includes breaking, waacking, and house dancing, among others.2014, Karen Schupp, Studying Dance: A Guide for Campus and Beyond, page 48
Also used as
breaking is also the present participle and gerund of break.
Examples of breaking in a sentence
- The nylon gears kept breaking, so we went to stainless steel.
- Breaking news reports have just come in to us over the wire.
- My car breaking down just as I was on the road ruined my vacation.
Forms of breaking
| plural | breakings |
|---|
Words formed from breaking
- backbreaking
- barns-breaking
- breaking and entering
- breaking change
- breakingly
- breaking news
- breaking of the waters
- car breaking
- codebreaking
- gamebreaking
- groundbreaking
- heartbreaking
- homebreaking
- horsebreaking
- housebreaking
- icebreaking
- inbreaking
- jawbreaking
- late-breaking
- lawbreaking
- microbreaking
- non-breaking
- nonbreaking
- oathbreaking
- outbreaking
- pairbreaking
- pathbreaking
- peacebreaking
- prison breaking
- record-breaking
- rulebreaking
- safebreaking
- sequence breaking
- shipbreaking
- shopbreaking
- strikebreaking
- strike breaking
- tiebreaking
- unbreaking
- windbreaking
- worldbreaking
Phrases with breaking
- breaking in
- breaking it
- breaking on
- breaking up
- bed breaking
- breaking bad
- breaking off
- breaking out
- breaking away
- breaking back
- breaking ball
- breaking bulk
94 more phrasesFewer phrases
- breaking camp
- breaking down
- breaking edge
- breaking even
- breaking fast
- breaking free
- breaking from
- breaking into
- breaking luck
- breaking open
- breaking wind
- breaking with
- buck breaking
- breaking apart
- breaking balls
- breaking bread
- breaking cover
- breaking gates
- breaking it to
- breaking loose
- breaking point
- breaking ranks
- breaking rigor
- breaking shins
- breaking water
- breaking wheel
- breaking ground
- breaking points
- breaking strain
- breaking stride
- breaking wheels
- breaking a lance
- breaking a sweat
- breaking changes
- breaking it down
- breaking one off
- breaking squelch
- breaking strains
- breaking the ice
- breaking the web
- breaking through
- breaking wedlock
- breaking capacity
- breaking the bank
- breaking the mold
- breaking the news
- breaking the seal
- breaking a promise
- breaking character
- breaking one's ass
- breaking the cycle
- breaking the mould
- breaking the story
- breaking the wheel
- breaking capacities
- breaking into a run
- breaking new ground
- breaking one's back
- breaking one's duck
- breaking one's fall
- breaking one's fast
- breaking one's neck
- breaking one's word
- breaking containment
- breaking one's lance
- breaking the back of
- breaking the Sabbath
- breaking the silence
- like breaking sticks
- breaking on the wheel
- breaking one's maiden
- breaking one's stride
- breaking the deadlock
- breaking the internet
- breaking one's promise
- breaking the internets
- breaking the interwebs
- breaking someone's back
- breaking someone's face
- breaking upon the wheel
- breaking with tradition
- breaking someone's balls
- breaking someone's heart
- breaking the fourth wall
- breaking a fly on a wheel
- breaking a fly on the wheel
- breaking a fly upon a wheel
- breaking down to brass tacks
- breaking a fly upon the wheel
- breaking a butterfly on a wheel
- breaking a butterfly on the wheel
- breaking a butterfly upon a wheel
- breaking a butterfly upon the wheel
- you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs
Words that rhyme with breaking
Questions about breaking
- What does breaking mean?
- Breaking means the act by which something is broken.
- What part of speech is breaking?
- Breaking is a noun.
- How do you pronounce breaking?
- Breaking is pronounced /ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of breaking?
- The plural of breaking is breakings.
Words near breaking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: breaking (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-breaking.ogg.
Cite this entry: “breaking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/breaking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.