Ground-breaking or groundbreaking?
ground-breaking is an adjective meaning “innovative, different than other things of its type”; groundbreaking is an adjective meaning “Innovative; new, different; doing something that has never been done before”. ground-breaking is written with a hyphen and groundbreaking as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between ground-breaking and groundbreaking?
| ground-breaking | groundbreaking | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | innovative, different than other things of its type A ceremony marking the commencement of construction of a road, bridge, or building | Innovative; new, different; doing something that has never been done before The point at which construction begins, by digging into the ground A ceremony to mark the beginning of construction |
| Example | ground-breaking technology | The latest model includes several groundbreaking features and improvements |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈɡɹaʊndˌbɹeɪkɪŋ/ /ˈɡɹæɔndˌbɹæɪkɪŋ/ /ˈɡɹæʊndˌbɹæɪkəŋ/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 2.9 times per million words |
Sources: ground-breaking and groundbreaking in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ground-breaking and groundbreaking
ground-breaking
- 1
innovative, different than other things of its type
ground-breaking technology
- 2
A ceremony marking the commencement of construction of a road, bridge, or building
groundbreaking
- 1
Innovative; new, different; doing something that has never been done before
The latest model includes several groundbreaking features and improvements
- 2
The point at which construction begins, by digging into the ground
- 3
A ceremony to mark the beginning of construction
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ground-breaking or groundbreaking?
ground-breaking is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; groundbreaking 2.9 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search ground-breaking vs groundbreaking?
“ground-breaking vs groundbreaking” is searched about 10 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.