break
/bɹeɪk/verb, noun
break is spelled B-R-E-A-K. The wrong spelling people search most is breal: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 40 of all searches for the word. Break is a verb meaning “To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for…”.
How many letters and syllables are in break?
| Letters | 5: B-R-E-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 151 times per million words; the 679th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, breal, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell break?
Break is spelled B-R-E-A-K. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 40 of the searches for break in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is break?
Break appears 151 times per million words in written English, the 679th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce break?
- US /bɹeɪk/
- US [bɹʷeɪ̯k]
- /bɹɛk/
Break has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-break.wav, En-us-break.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with break
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: brake (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: bruck.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with break?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as break from its last stressed vowel (/eɪk/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: baker, brake.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of break
- breaks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- breaking participle, present
- broke past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- broken participle, past
- breaked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does break mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
If the vase falls to the floor, it might break.
- 2
To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.
His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.
- 3
To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.
Is it your or my turn to break?
- 4
To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.
Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me?
- 5
To use a high-value denomination of currency, thus necessitating being given change in smaller denominations.
I don't want to break my hundred dollar bill.
- 6
To change the orderliness or compactness of an arrangement.
The soldier broke formation.
- 7
To disrupt the surface of and turn over the body of a substance.
You have to break the soil with the ho.
- 8
To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
Her child’s death broke Angela.
- 9
slangTo B-boy; to breakdance.
- 10
rareTo brake.
noun
- 1
An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.
The femur has a clean break and so should heal easily.
- 2
A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.
The sun came out in a break in the clouds.
- 3
An interruption of continuity; departure from or rupture with.
- 4
A rest or pause, usually from work.
Let’s take a five-minute break.
- 5
UKA time for students to talk or play between lessons.
- 6
A scheduled interval of days or weeks between periods of school instruction; a holiday.
winter break, spring break
- 7
A short holiday.
a weekend break on the Isle of Wight
- 8
A temporary split with a romantic partner.
I think we need a break.
- 9
A section of extended repetition of the percussion break to a song, created by a hip-hop DJ as rhythmic dance music.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Break in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | se rompre, se casser, se briser , rompre, casser, briser |
| German | zerbrechen, kaputtgehen, brechen , Bruch , Öffnung, Spalt |
| Portuguese | quebrar, partir, romper , quebra , fenda, fresta |
| Spanish | romperse , romper, quebrar, escrachar, esñocar , ruptura |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does break come from?
From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). Doublet of bray.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).