Breakout

How to spell breakout

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce breakout

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does breakout mean?

1. nounA sudden escape from confinement, or a sudden eruption or outbreak of something.
2. nounA small group that splits off from a larger meeting or conference for focused discussion.
3. adjectiveDescribing a sudden and notable rise to success or prominence.

Breakout in a sentence

• noun

  The guards foiled the prisoners' breakout before dawn.

• noun

  After the keynote, delegates moved into a breakout on cyber security.

• adjective

  The young actor delivered a breakout performance that critics adored.

• noun

  The prisoners planned their breakout from the camp for months.

• noun

  The trainer assigned each breakout a different case study to review.

• adjective

  The indie game became the breakout hit of the year.

Where does breakout come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound built from two of the oldest words in the language: the verb 'break', which descends from Old English brecan meaning 'to shatter, burst apart, or force a way through', and the adverb 'out', from Old English ut meaning 'away' or 'forth'. The phrasal verb 'break out' (to escape, or to erupt suddenly) was in use for centuries before writers began fusing the two parts into a single noun. That noun-and-adjective form is relatively modern, gaining ground through the twentieth century in military, medical, and prison contexts, where a sudden escape or eruption needed a tidy single label. The newer sense of a 'breakout' success or a meeting's 'breakout' group is later still. The main spelling trap is simply remembering that the noun is one closed word, whereas the verb 'to break out' stays two.

How the word is built

• break (Old English brecan: to shatter or escape)
• out (Old English ut: away, forth)