How to use breakdown in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Breakdown means a failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature. Example: “Whenever he was behind the wheel, he would panic at the first sign of a breakdown.”

Examples of breakdown by meaning

nounA failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature.

Whenever he was behind the wheel, he would panic at the first sign of a breakdown.
He declared that these drastic steps would undoubtedly inconvenience a good many people, but the alternative was bankruptcy of the Ulster Transport Authority and the breakdown of public transport services.1956 May, “Transport in Ulster”, in Railway Magazine, page 279

nounSomething, such as a vehicle, that has experienced a mechanical failure.

We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.

nounDetailed categorization, or itemization or listing, of the components of a thing; (countable) an instance of this.

Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
In other words, there were only really headline numbers, with little useful breakdown by routes or traffic type.2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of Things to Come …”, in Rail, number 978, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN...

nounA failure in a relationship; a failure or loss of organization in a system.

What else than Feudalism could have followed upon the breakdown of that great centralized governmental machine known as the Roman Empire?1908 February 19, Anthony Meredith [pseudonym; Jack London], “Foreword”, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London...

noun(Sudden) worsening of physical health or (more commonly) mental stability, resulting in an inability to carry on normal...

After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.

nounThe short period of open play immediately after a tackle and before and during the ensuing ruck.

Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41 – 10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2022
When players appeal to the referee, as they so often do, for penalties at breakdowns when the supposed offender is being deliberately pinned down by their own teammates, they should understand they do their sport a small but significant disservice.2019 January 2, Robert Kitson, “This must not be the year when rugby union trashes its finest qualities”, in The Guardian, archived from...

nounA part of a piece of music or a song which differs from the other parts in that it features improvisation or is...

And now it's time for a breakdown.1992 March 11, James Brown, Thomas McElroy, Denzil Foster, John Starks, Fred Wesley, “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, in Funky...

nounA piece of music played for such a dance, especially a rapid bluegrass tune featuring a five-string banjo.

The banjo built up to breakdown speed and then took a sidestep into another register, an oddly complex net of notes which stretched out for a time and finally stopped on a full rest.1989, Madison Smartt Bell, chapter 21, in Soldier’s Joy, New York, N.Y.: Ticknor & Fields, →ISBN, part II (Follow Me Down (1970–71)), page...
The grown-ups were lolling around on the porch and in the yard, finger snapping and foot tapping while Samuel played "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" on his five-string banjo.2011, Jenny Wingfield, chapter 12, in The Homecoming of Samuel Lake […], trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published...

More sentences with breakdown

If you drive yourself so much, you'll end up having a breakdown.From the entry drive
Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.From the entry destructive
His tirelessness in helping the poor won him an award and a nervous breakdown from exhaustion.From the entry tirelessness
Her divorce destroyed her; she had a nervous breakdown and was severely depressed for more than a year.From the entry destroy
High-pressure situations can lead to nervous breakdowns.From the entry high-pressure
You just had a breakdown? So true, bestie.From the entry so true, bestie
Following the breakdown of trade talks, the nation announced a 25% retaliatory tariff on all imported luxury vehicles.From the entry retaliatory tariff
The blistering heat hinted at the greater costs of climate breakdown to come.2021 June 29, Gabrielle Canon, “Historic heatwave, extreme drought and wildfires plague North American west”, in The Guardian. From the entry climate breakdown
When depression or breakdown is hollerin' at you . . . . holla back.2012, Vanessa Clark, Essential Encouragement: Poetry with a Purpose, →ISBN, page 71. From the entry holla back
And while Williams cut down the seagulling, he still wasn't hitting the breakdown with any vigour.2011 August 29, lord shineything [username], “Re: AB Players”, in rec.sport.rugby.union (Usenet). From the entry seagulling
Most people know very less about non-depressive mental breakdowns influenced by heavy stress.2005, Peter D. Kaufman, from Charlie Munger, Poor Charlie's Almanack, The Donning Company Publishers, page 335. From the entry pavlovian
The source-drain breakdown characteristic of NMOSFETS exhibits an abrupt curve due to avalanche breakdown following punchthrough.1990 March, Katsushi Asahina, Shuji Murakami, Katsuki Ichinose, Fuyumi Minami, Yasuhiro Funakoshi, “A 256-K 13-Nanosecond CMOS SRAM”, in…. From the entry nMOSFET
The transition in predischarges at certain gap distances resulted in two different breakdown voltages.1973, Digest of Literature on Dielectrics, page 266. From the entry predischarge
Farhūd denotes a breakdown of law and order in which life and property are in peril.[1966, Hayyim J. Cohen, “The Anti‐Jewish Farhūd in Baghdad, 1941”, in Middle Eastern Studies, volume 3, number 1, →DOI, →JSTOR, pages 2–17. From the entry Farhud
AI systems will make mistakes, malfunction, or even breakdown.2024 December, Karin Rolanda Jongsma, Martin Sand, Megan Milota, “Why we should not mistake accuracy of medical AI for efficiency”, in NPJ…. From the entry AI drift
As a breakdown provided by the company shows, every move they make is chucked straight on her bill.2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The…. From the entry parking ticket
Yu-Gi-Tubers provide a constant stream of Yu-Gi-Oh! content, including analysis of new cards and archetypes, combo tutorials, and banlist breakdowns.2022 September 11, Drew Heckman, “Why Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Fan-Made Community Is an Essential Resource for New Players”, in CBR, archived from the…. From the entry Yugituber
Secondly, associated demonstration of the breakdown structure and the progress of government work has been made on government web portals.2021, He Tian, Yanbin Lv, editors, Assessing Government Transparency in China (2018), →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 59–60. From the entry Gaoyao
If you still want to have a highly-characterised breakdown whilst still being original about it, here are some alternatives.2021 October 16, Dan Saxotweet, “Alternatives To Becoming The Joker”, in Lemon Press. From the entry become the Joker
There's been a series of recurring Mass rapid transit (MRT) train breakdowns in Singapore that led to delays for commuters.2017 August 18, Dennis Heng, “Improvement of MRT train travel chit expediting processes”, in LinkedIn, retrieved 05 Apr 2025. From the entry chit
Beth's husband, their pastor, and the psychologist decided that Beth had experienced a pseudoreligious experience before having a mental breakdown.2016, James W. Goll, Michal Ann Goll, A Call to the Secret Place: Pursuing the Prize of God's Presence. From the entry pseudoreligious
Microbial samples and peri-implant crestal bone levels of all implant sites were obtained before, during and after the breakdown period.2015 October 22, “Evaluation in a Dog Model of Three Antimicrobial Glassy Coatings: Prevention of Bone Loss around Implants and Microbial…. From the entry implant
The lack of an association with particular strain lineages suggests that host factors predominate in the breakdown towards mycobacteremia.2015 July 16, “High Genotypic Discordance of Concurrent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates from Sputum and Blood of HIV-Infected…. From the entry mycobacteremia
I mean, if a goat roper from West Texas can handle it without having a nervous breakdown, so can others.2015, Jimmy R. Watson, Big Jesus: A Pastor’s Struggle with Christology, page 30. From the entry goat roper
There's no way to build to a peak except to get quiet first, and after each breakdown comes another bass drop.2013, Chuk Moran, Superactually: Micro-Essays on Post-Ironic Life, →ISBN. From the entry bass drop
With flankers Mamuka Gorgodze and Shalva Sutiashvili to the fore, Georgia came swarming back, dominating England at the breakdown.2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport. From the entry to the fore
Popping up irrepressibly in modern texts, the rat signals the breakdown of boundaries, at once calamitous and liberating.2010, Maud Ellmann, “Chapter 2. The modernist rat”, in The Nets of Modernism: Henry James, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Sigmund Freud…. From the entry bibliophagous
How might the breakdowns be rectified at the time?2007, Gershon Tenenbaum, Robert C. Eklund, Handbook of Sport Psychology, page 279. From the entry premortem

Meaning of breakdown

noun A failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature.
noun The sudden (and usually damaging) transition of an electrical insulator to a conductor when subjected to a sufficiently strong voltage, caused by the partial or complete ionization of the insulator; (countable) an instance of this; also, the minimum voltage at which this occurs.
noun Something, such as a vehicle, that has experienced a mechanical failure.

Full definition of breakdown

Questions about breakdown in a sentence

How do you use breakdown in a sentence?: Breakdown is used as a noun. For example: “Whenever he was behind the wheel, he would panic at the first sign of a breakdown.”
What is a short sentence with breakdown?: “And now it's time for a breakdown.”
What does breakdown mean?: Breakdown means a failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature.

Adapted from Wiktionary: breakdown (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use breakdown in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/breakdown. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.