Breakthrough

How to spell breakthrough

12 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce breakthrough

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does breakthrough mean?

1. nounA sudden, important advance or discovery that overcomes a previous obstacle.

Breakthrough in a sentence

• The research team announced a major breakthrough in cancer treatment.

• After months of stalled talks, negotiators finally reached a breakthrough.

Where does breakthrough come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, built straightforwardly from two old Germanic words: 'break', from Old English 'brecan' meaning 'to shatter or burst apart', and 'through', from Old English 'thurh' meaning 'from end to end' or 'by way of'. Both halves trace back to Proto-Germanic roots and have close cousins in modern German ('brechen' and 'durch'). The literal military sense, a forceful penetration through an enemy line, emerged during the First World War, and the figurative sense of a sudden important advance in knowledge or progress followed soon after, becoming common by the mid twentieth century. The spelling trap lives entirely in the second element: 'through' keeps the silent 'gh' that once marked a guttural sound English long ago stopped pronouncing. Because the word is written as one solid piece, writers must also resist the urge to insert a space or hyphen.

How the word is built

• break (to burst or force through)
• through (from one side to the other)