breakage
Americannoun
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the amount or quantity of things broken.
There was a great deal of breakage in that shipment of glassware.
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an allowance or compensation for the loss or damage of articles broken in transit or in use.
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the money accrued by a racetrack from calculating the payoff to winning pari-mutuel bettors only in multiples of dimes for each dollar bet.
noun
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the act or result of breaking
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the quantity or amount broken
the total breakage was enormous
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compensation or allowance for goods damaged while in use, transit, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of breakage
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:
The findings suggest that DNA breakage and repair may play a larger role in brain biology than previously recognized.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 21, 2026
To reach weapons-grade—93% or higher—the material must be spun in sensitive centrifuges that are subject to breakage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Part of elephants' whisker evolution is to prevent breakage, said Schulz.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
Historically, cables in Taiwan, Vietnam and Egypt have all been vulnerable to breakage and sabotage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2025
After that, night after night, we watched our sphere, ready to use the string at the first signs of breakage.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
“It looks amazing. No flooding, no breakages of buildings,” Hewitt told Nine Network television.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2023
In the past, Twitter prevented breakages from escalating by having people around to diagnose and solve problems immediately.
From New York Times ● Feb. 28, 2023
"It's not all done on the morning of the event, but there are occasions where breakages, damage occurs during the rehearsals," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2022
Cohen said he was conscious of the “gaps and breakages everywhere” - between his generation’s views of Israel and its parents’, and between American and Israeli Jews.
From Washington Times ● May 10, 2022
There were several breakages because I was brandishing the sword so clumsily.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
