breakup
Americannoun
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breakups
plural
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disintegration; disruption; dispersal.
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the ending of a personal, especially a romantic, relationship.
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(in Alaska and Canada)
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the melting and loosening of ice in rivers and harbors during the early spring.
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the first day on which such ice is soft or dispersed enough to permit ships to use the waterways.
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Informal. an act or instance of being convulsed with laughter.
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temporary distortion in a televised picture.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of breakup
First recorded in 1785–95; noun use of verb phrase break up
Explanation
A breakup is when something comes apart or separates into pieces, like the breakup of a comet that eventually produces a meteor shower we can see from Earth. The breakup of ice on a lake in spring, melting and cracking into separate chunks, means it's no longer safe to walk on. When a relationship ends that's a breakup too: "After the breakup, they moved out and got separate apartments, and now they share custody of their cat." You can also use this word for the split between other entities, like the breakup of a church into different sects or the breakup of a treaty between several countries.
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 front-of-house staff always seem to be navigating the aftermath of a complicated breakup between two polycules, but the breakfast sandwich is truly good enough to make the interpersonal intrigue part of the charm.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
It was a breakup date I’d never forget.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
At the time of their breakup, LaPaglia had been living in Bryan’s $7.45 million Massachusetts mansion, which the singer purchased in April 2024.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Boris Yeltsin, who served as Russia’s first president after the breakup of the Soviet Union, later told a Russian newspaper that a “military development” led to the outbreak.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
One of us has to swallow our pride and take the blame for the whole breakup.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
She didn’t invent the idea of catchy songs about infatuations and breakups where the protagonist’s experience can be mapped to a singer’s life, but she perfected it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
When people go through stuff like that — through breakups, whatever it is — no matter what it is, I’m probably still gonna take you back at the end of the day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
It should not escape notice that nobody penalized Taylor Swift or Lily Allen for publicizing their breakups.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2026
Roughly 29% of married and unmarried people said pet-related conflicts made their breakups more difficult, according to a MetLife Pet Insurance survey of 1,000 Americans last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
With me as the worried mother figure who consoled him over bad breakups, and him as the sensitive kid who listened and supported me through my meltdowns.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
