Collapse

How to spell collapse

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce collapse

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does collapse mean?

1. verbTo fall down or inward suddenly, or to break down completely.
2. nounA sudden falling down or breaking apart, or a complete failure.

Collapse in a sentence

• verb

  The old barn roof could collapse under the weight of heavy snow.

• noun

  Engineers blamed the bridge collapse on years of neglected maintenance.

• verb

  Exhausted runners sometimes collapse just past the finish line.

• noun

  The sudden collapse of the bank wiped out thousands of savings accounts.

Where does collapse come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb collabi, meaning 'to fall together' or 'to fall in ruin', which combined the prefix com- (together) with labi (to slip, slide, or fall). The past participle of that verb was collapsus, and it is from this form that English took the word in the seventeenth century, at first chiefly in medical and scientific writing to describe organs or structures falling inward. The same Latin labi (to slip) lies behind the everyday English words 'lapse' and 'relapse', so a collapse is literally a falling-together. The single l followed by the doubled letters of the prefix is the usual spelling snag: the prefix supplies the doubled consonant in com- assimilating to col-, leaving collapse with two l's. Over time the meaning broadened from physical falling-in to the figurative breakdown of plans, markets, and health.

How the word is built

• col- (together, from com-)
• lapse (from Latin labi, to slide or fall)