break down

/\ˌbɹeɪk ˈdaʊn\/ verb

Letters

10 characters

Language

French

word origin

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

break down is aFrenchverb. It means: Tomber en panne, se détraquer. Pronounced \ˌbɹeɪk ˈdaʊn\.

Key facts for break down
PropertyValue
Headwordbreak down
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ˌbɹeɪk ˈdaʊn\
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

break down is not present in the top-100,000 ranked French corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for break down is 10 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˌbɹeɪk ˈdaʊn\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for break down in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is break down, spelled B-R-E-A-K- -D-O-W-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tomber en panne, se détraquer.
  2. 2
    Décomposer.
  3. 3
    Se décomposer.
  4. 4
    Éclater en sanglots, s’effondrer en larmes.
  5. 5
    S’effondrer nerveusement, déprimer
  6. 6
    Clarifier, simplifier.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "break down"?
"break down" is spelled B-R-E-A-K- -D-O-W-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ˌbɹeɪk ˈdaʊn\.
What does "break down" mean?
As a verb, "break down" means: Tomber en panne, se détraquer.
How do you pronounce "break down"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "break down" is \ˌbɹeɪk ˈdaʊn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "break down" come from?
"break down" is a French 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.