nervous breakdown

noun

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

"nervous-breakdown" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“nervous breakdown” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An attack of a psychological disorder such as depression or anxiety so severe that it prevents a person from continuing to function normally

Key facts for nervous breakdown
PropertyValue
Headwordnervous breakdown
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “nervous breakdown” sits in English frequency

nervous breakdown falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

nervous breakdown is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

nervous breakdown has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is nervous breakdown, spelled N-E-R-V-O-U-S- -B-R-E-A-K-D-O-W-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    An attack of a psychological disorder such as depression or anxiety so severe that it prevents a person from continuing to function normally
  2. 2
    A psychological disorder usually characterized by panic attacks and aggressiveness, related to the Hispanic ataque de nervios.

Synonyms

mental breakdown

This word in other languages

chiripiorca(Español)crise de nerfs(Français)Nervenzusammenbruch(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nervous breakdown"?
"nervous breakdown" is spelled N-E-R-V-O-U-S- -B-R-E-A-K-D-O-W-N.
What does "nervous breakdown" mean?
As a noun, "nervous breakdown" means: An attack of a psychological disorder such as depression or anxiety so severe that it prevents a person from continuing to function normally
What language does "nervous breakdown" come from?
"nervous breakdown" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “nervous breakdown”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is N-E-R-V-O-U-S- -B-R-E-A-K-D-O-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list