Breaking

How to spell breaking

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce breaking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does breaking mean?

1. verbSeparating something into pieces or causing it to come apart, often suddenly or by force.
2. adjectiveCurrently unfolding or just reported, as in news that is happening right now.

Breaking in a sentence

• verb

  The movers wrapped each plate carefully to avoid breaking the china.

• adjective

  The channel interrupted its schedule for a breaking news report.

• verb

  The constant breaking of cheap toys frustrated the parents.

• adjective

  A breaking story about the election dominated the headlines all evening.

Where does breaking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'break', which descends from Old English 'brecan', meaning 'to shatter, burst, or divide by force'. That word belongs to a wide Germanic family, with close relatives such as Dutch 'breken' and German 'brechen', and it ultimately traces back to a Proto-Germanic root carrying the same idea of forcible separation. The same ancient root also produced Latin 'frangere', 'to break', which is why English borrowings like 'fracture', 'fragment', and 'fragile' feel related in meaning even though they arrived by a different route. The '-ing' ending here is the ordinary native suffix that turns a verb into a participle or a noun of action. The chief spelling trap is not the word itself but its sound-alike 'braking', from 'brake', so the reader must rely on meaning: 'breaking' is about things coming apart, while 'braking' is about slowing down.

How the word is built

• break (root: to separate into pieces)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)

Words that sound like breaking

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• braking: Applying the brakes to slow down or stop a moving vehicle.