shipwreck
Americannoun
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shipwrecks
plural
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the destruction or loss of a ship, as by sinking.
-
the remains of a wrecked ship.
-
destruction or ruin.
the shipwreck of one's hopes.
verb (used with object)
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shipwrecks,
present (3rd person singular)
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shipwrecked,
past participle, past
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shipwrecking
present participle
-
to cause to suffer shipwreck.
-
to destroy; ruin.
verb (used without object)
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shipwrecks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shipwrecked,
past participle, past
-
shipwrecking
present participle
noun
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the partial or total destruction of a ship at sea
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a wrecked ship or part of such a ship
-
ruin or destruction
the shipwreck of all my hopes
verb
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to wreck or destroy (a ship)
-
to bring to ruin or destruction
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shipwrecksimple
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shipwreckssimple
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have shipwreckedperfect
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has shipwreckedperfect
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am shipwreckingprogressive
-
are shipwreckingprogressive
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is shipwreckingprogressive
-
have been shipwreckingperfect progressive
-
has been shipwreckingperfect progressive
Past
-
shipwreckedsimple
-
had shipwreckedperfect
-
was shipwreckingprogressive
-
were shipwreckingprogressive
-
had been shipwreckingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shipwreck
before 1100; Middle English shipwrech remains of a shipwreck; see ship 1, wreck; replacing Old English scipwræc ( see wrack)
Explanation
A shipwreck is the damaged remains of a large sea-going vessel that washes to shore or sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Historians are interested in old shipwrecks, which reveal details of who was onboard or what was being transported when the ship was badly damaged. You can use the word for the act of the ship's destruction as well as the wreckage left behind: "The shipwreck occurred when the Titanic struck an iceberg." Storms, accidents, war, and sabotage can all lead to shipwrecks. An earlier maritime word with the same meaning was "ship-breaking."
Vocabulary lists containing shipwreck
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Eighty-two people survived the shipwreck, all Ethiopian nationals, according to the updated toll.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
A powerful nor'easter storm has washed up what may be a shipwreck from the 19th century in Massachusetts, local media said.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Waters has encountered complete artifacts while working with shipwreck collections, where intact objects are more common.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Researchers in France and Croatia analyzed the protective coating on the Roman Republic shipwreck Ilovik-Paržine 1, which sank about 2,200 years ago off the coast of what is now Croatia.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
Cousteau became a household name when he introduced the world to ocean and shipwreck exploration through Academy Award-winning films such as The Silent World and highly popular television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
The coast of southern Turkey is littered with ancient shipwrecks.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
It called it "one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded" on the route.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
The Philippine government has designated the roughly 260-square-mile area an economic development zone, pitching the bay’s tropical beaches and scuba diving on World War II shipwrecks to tourists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Homer’s “The Odyssey” follows Odysseus, a Greek king trying to get home after the Trojan War, a journey interrupted by Cyclopes, sirens, shipwrecks and gods with grudges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026
For historians, anthropologists, and marine archaeologists, the most important use of side-scan sonar is in the location and excavation of shipwrecks.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
His Ultron avatar sports the long beard of a fisherman shipwrecked by a hard life.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026
Founded in 1964 as an offshore pirate station, Radio Caroline broadcast from a ship until 1991, when it was shipwrecked off the Kent coast.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
How generations have read the Declaration of Independence, a shipwrecked crew’s island perils, the joys of soccer fandom on more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
A wildfire sparked by the flare of a shipwrecked mariner has burned nearly a fifth of Santa Rosa Island and marks what officials called the largest blaze recorded on the island in modern history.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
He had been shipwrecked on Bermuda for nine months until new ships could be built from the remains of the Sea Venture.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
“Maybe fate brought you here for a reason,” Blackthorne is told shortly after shipwrecking in Japan.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
Instead he continued: “But I ain’t the one to bear a grudge, Duval, although you did come mighty near shipwrecking my faith in human natur’.
From The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune by John Henry Goldfrap
I’ve had a pretty good hardening already, what with knocking on the head, drowning, shipwrecking, starving, and walking off my legs.”
From Yussuf the Guide The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor by John Schonberg
And of the risks I ran of utterly shipwrecking my character and good name and from which Thou didst rescue me.
From Santa Teresa an Appreciation: with some of the best passages of the Saint's Writings by Alexander Whyte
He was in danger of shipwrecking on that fatal sunken reef to American character, popularity.
From Se-quo-yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V.41 by Unknown
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