breakpoint

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"breakpoint" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“breakpoint” is uncommon English (frequency #59,245 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,245
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A point in a program at which operation may be interrupted during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated.

Corpus desk

Index EN-breakpoint · breakpoint · English

breakpoint · rank #59,245 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,245
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH boyband

Nearest frequency peer: boyband (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “breakpoint”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “breakpoint” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for breakpoint
PropertyValue
Headwordbreakpoint
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Frequency rank#59,245
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “breakpoint” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).breakpointfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “boyband” (#59,244), “bowtie” (#59,243), “Brontë” (#59,247). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “breakpoint” is #59,245. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

breakpoint is uncommon English at frequency #59,245 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for breakpoint in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From break + point. The correct English form is breakpoint, spelled B-R-E-A-K-P-O-I-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A point in a program at which operation may be interrupted during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated.
  2. 2
    A location referred to when issuing watches, warnings, or advisories for specific areas.
  3. 3
    The point where surface water waves are breaking in, e.g., oceans or lakes.
  4. 4
    A viewport width at which a web page is programmed to adjust the properties (such as position, size, or visibility) of certain elements within the page.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how breakpoint appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. If a device's screen width is equal to, or less than, the screen width defined at the breakpoint, it will have the related CSS applied to it. You sometimes want to set breakpoints to match particular device screen widths, but I have found that what is most important is simply that the layout remains usable as it gets smaller.

Etymology

From break + point.

This word in other languages

point d'arrêt(Français)Haltepunkt(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "breakpoint"?
"breakpoint" is spelled B-R-E-A-K-P-O-I-N-T.
What does "breakpoint" mean?
As a noun, "breakpoint" means: A point in a program at which operation may be interrupted during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated.
What is the origin of the word "breakpoint"?
From break + point. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "breakpoint", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

biogenesis#59,230Bermondsey#59,224cherishing#59,273cluttering#59,278

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list