breakthrough

American  

[breyk-throo] / ˈbreɪkˌθru /

noun

• breakthroughs
  plural

1. a military movement or advance all the way through and beyond an enemy's frontline defense.

2. an act or instance of removing or surpassing an obstruction or restriction; the overcoming of a stalemate.

   The president reported a breakthrough in the treaty negotiations.

3. any significant or sudden advance, development, achievement, or increase, as in scientific knowledge or diplomacy, that removes a barrier to progress.

   The jet engine was a major breakthrough in air transport.

4. Medicine/Medical. an infection, disease, disorder, or condition that occurs in an individual despite their having received a vaccine, medication, or treatment.

   Covid breakthroughs are usually less severe than infections in unvaccinated people, indicating that the vaccine is still doing its job of combating the virus.

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adjective

1. constituting a breakthrough: Critics called it a breakthrough film.

   Their products are engineered with breakthrough technology.

   Critics called it a breakthrough film.

2. Medicine/Medical. relating to or being an infection, disease, disorder, or condition that occurs as a breakthrough: She experienced disabling breakthrough pain despite the high dose of painkillers she was taking.

   In the original vaccine trial, 89% of breakthrough infections were with a particular family of virus strains.

   She experienced disabling breakthrough pain despite the high dose of painkillers she was taking.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• breakthroughs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of breakthrough

First recorded in 1915–20; noun use of verb phrase break through

Explanation

An amazing discovery or a huge amount of progress can be called a breakthrough. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 was a breakthrough for modern medicine. A personal breakthrough might be overcoming your fear of spiders once and for all. A bigger breakthrough, one that affects many people, is the invention of indoor plumbing. There's a sense of suddenness and drama associated with most breakthroughs. The word started out with a military meaning of literally "breaking through a barrier" in 1918. By the 1930s, it came to have the second meaning of "abrupt solution."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

breakthrough breakthroughs

Her reward for doing so was an Olympic 4x100m relay silver medal, before a breakthrough 2025 culminated in her first individual global medal in Tokyo.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

The apparent breakthrough couldn’t have come at a better time.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

The breakthrough of talking pictures introduced the voiceover narration—a revolutionary development that allowed for further context to be added to historical footage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Sovaldi was a truly amazing breakthrough, and we want the biotech and pharmacy industry to continue its impressive track record of pursuing innovative new therapeutics.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

Identifying these surprising and provocative themes was a breakthrough, but the Times is not in the dissertation business.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Over the past decade, that balancing act has produced life-changing medical breakthroughs, but also historically high healthcare costs.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

Unlike many players who reach elite clubs through prestigious academies or early top-flight breakthroughs, Chavarria had to take the longer route.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

For scientists like Cohen, these molecules are an exciting area of research that could reap significant health breakthroughs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Unlike many other recent AI-assisted breakthroughs, the counterexample itself is remarkably simple.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

Then I remember the lobby of the Department of Magical Science is constantly changing to reflect current breakthroughs in the field.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

Related Words

• boost
• development
• discovery
• finding
• gain
• hike
• improvement
• leap
• progress