debris
Syllables: de·bris/ˈdɛbɹi//dəˈbɹiː/
debris noun: rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
Noun
debris (uncountable)
- Rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
- His neighbors were still ripping out debris. But Mr. Ryan, a retired bricklayer who built his house by hand 30 years ago only to lose most of it to Hurricane Sandy, was already hard at work rebuilding.2012 December 21, David M. Halbfinger, Charles V. Bagli, Sarah Maslin Nir, “On Ravaged Coastline, It’s Rebuild Deliberately vs. Rebuild Now”, in The New York Times
- But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris...2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2020, page 43
- Synonyms:
- detritus
- Litter and discarded refuse.
- [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2023
- Large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.
debris meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
debris in Hindi
- rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- मलबा malbā
- litter and discarded refuse
- मलबा malbā, अवशेष avśeṣ
debris in Tamil
- சிதைக் கூளம், சிதைபொருள், சிதைவுக் கூளங்கள், உடைசல், உடைமானம், இடிசல்
debris in Marathi
- rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed
- मलवा malvā, अवशेष avśeṣ
- litter and discarded refuse
- अवशेष avśeṣ
debris in Urdu
- ملبہ
More languagesFewer languages
- debris in Bengali
- ধ্বংসাবশেষ, ভগ্নাংশ
- debris in Malayalam
- അവശിഷ്ടം, അവശിഷ്ടങ്ങൾ
- debris in Kannada
- ಭಗ್ನಾವಶೇಷ, ಮುರುಕಲುಗುಪ್ಪೆ, ಭಗ್ನರಾಶಿ, ಬಂಡೆಚೂರುಗಳರಾಶಿ
- debris in Punjabi
- ਮਲਬਾ, ਮਲਬੇ
- debris in Gujarati
- કાટમાળ, ભંગાર
- debris in Arabic
- رُكام rukām
- debris in Indonesian
- serpihan
- debris in Vietnamese
- mảnh vụn
Examples of debris in a sentence
- The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2020, page 43:
- Melissa Foley clears debris in her neighborhood as the San Lorenzo River rises in Felton on Saturday, January 14.2023 January 16, “California’s flooding, in pictures”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Mar 2023:
Synonyms of debris
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of debris
| alternative form (archaic) | débris |
|---|
Origin of debris
Borrowed from French débris, itself from dé- (“de-”) + bris (“broken, crumbled”), or from Middle French debriser (“to break apart”), from Old French debrisier, itself from de- + brisier (“to break apart, shatter, bust”), from Frankish *bristijan, *bristan, *brestan (“to break violently, shatter, bust”), from Proto-Germanic *brestaną (“to break, burst”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrest- (“to separate, burst”). Cognate with Old High German bristan (“to break asunder, burst”), Old English berstan (“to break, shatter, burst”), German bersten (“to burst”). More at burst.
Words formed from debris
Phrases with debris
Words that rhyme with debris
Questions about debris
- What does debris mean?
- Debris means rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
- What is debris in Hindi?
- Debris in Hindi is मलबा (malbā), अवशेष (avśeṣ). See Debris meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use debris in a sentence?
- The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
- What part of speech is debris?
- Debris is a noun.
- How do you pronounce debris?
- Debris is pronounced /ˈdɛbɹi/ (UK).
Words near debris in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: debris (page history and authors); debris (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debris (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debris (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debris (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debris (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); debris (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); debris (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-debris.wav, en-us-debris.ogg.
Cite this entry: “debris.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/debris. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.