breakthrough
UK/ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː//ˈbɹeɪk.θɹu/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
breakthrough adjective: characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.
Adjective
breakthrough (not comparable)
- Characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.
- a breakthrough technological advance
- Involving the contraction of a disease by a person with a decreased susceptibility, such as a person who has been vaccinated to help prevent that disease.
- Breakthrough infections (urine infections that develop in children on antibiotics) can occasionally occur, and if they do, different preventative antibiotics can be given or sometimes surgery to fix the leaky valve can be undertaken.a. 2005, “Brochure - Urinary Reflux”, in Renal Resource Centre, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2004
- There is also growing evidence that while Omicron may cause many breakthrough cases among previously infected or previously vaccinated populations, the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease among them will be lower, they added.2022 January 15, “In open letter, 30 doctors issue appeal against use of ‘unwarranted medications, diagnostics’”, in The Indian Express, WordPress, archived from the original on 15 Jan 2022
Noun
breakthrough (plural breakthroughs)
- An advance through and past enemy lines.
- Any major progress; such as a great innovation or discovery that overcomes a significant obstacle.
- Albert Einstein is credited with making some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern physics.
- In [Raymond] Kurzweil’s future, biotechnology and nanotechnology give us the power to manipulate our bodies and the world around us at will, at the molecular level. Progress hyperaccelerates, and every hour brings a century’s worth of scientific breakthroughs.2011 February 10, Lev Grossman, “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Mar 2025
- The penetration of the opposition's defence.
- But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2022
- The penetration of a separating wall or the remaining distance to an adjacent hollow (a crosscut in mining) or between two parts of a tunnel build from both ends.
- Synonyms:
- knockthrough
- The emergence or one or more symptoms of a condition despite medication or other medical treatment.
- She was on two antiepileptics for five years but then had a breakthrough seizure.
- He was managing his discomfort with common painkillers, but one morning he had breakthrough pain causing him to miss work.
breakthrough meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
breakthrough in Tamil
- மடைமாற்றம், கண்டுபிடிப்பு, முக்கிய கண்டுபிடிப்பு, ஊடுருவிச் செல், சாதனை, வல் ஊடுவழி
breakthrough in Urdu
- بریک تھرو
breakthrough in Bengali
- শত্রুবূহ্যভেদ
breakthrough in Malayalam
- development, advance, step forward
- നൂതനകണ്ടുപിടിത്തം, പെട്ടെന്നുള്ള പ്രധാന സംഭവവികാസം, മുന്നേറ്റം, മുന്നോട്ടുള്ള കാൽവയ്പ്, പുരോഗതി, വികാസം
More languagesFewer languages
- breakthrough in Kannada
- ಆವಿಷ್ಕಾರ, ಹೊಸಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ, ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ, ಅಡೆತಡೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮುರಿದು ಮುನ್ನುಗ್ಗು
- breakthrough in Arabic
- اِخْتِرَاق iḵtirāq
Examples of breakthrough in a sentence
- This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on the electricity bill.
- Some real breakthroughs were made at the summit, but only far from the official diplomatic table.
- This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on electricity bills.
Synonyms of breakthrough
Forms of breakthrough
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative US (nonstandard) | breakthru |
| Noun | |
| plural | breakthroughs |
Origin of breakthrough
From break + through. Compare German Durchbruch and Dutch doorbraak (“breakthrough”, literally “through-break”).
Words formed from breakthrough
Questions about breakthrough
- What does breakthrough mean?
- Breakthrough means characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.
- What is breakthrough in Tamil?
- Breakthrough in Tamil is மடைமாற்றம், கண்டுபிடிப்பு, முக்கிய கண்டுபிடிப்பு. See Breakthrough meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is breakthrough?
- Breakthrough can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce breakthrough?
- Breakthrough is pronounced /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/ (UK).
Words near breakthrough in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: breakthrough (page history and authors); breakthrough (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); breakthrough (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); breakthrough (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); breakthrough (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); breakthrough (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-breakthrough.wav, en-us-breakthrough.ogg.
Cite this entry: “breakthrough.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/breakthrough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.