breakthrough

American  

[breyk-throo] / ˈbreɪkˌθru /

noun

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.

Etymology

Origin of breakthrough

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

Example Sentences

The breakthrough reflects years of leadership in interferometry at Steward Observatory.

From Science Daily

Alphabet — the error-correction breakthrough: Alphabet’s Google quantum team has made the deepest progress on logical qubits — the holy grail of quantum scaling.

From MarketWatch

Their international breakthrough came with 2009's Only Revolutions - which went platinum in the UK and received a Mercury Prize nomination.

From BBC

The breakthrough was one of the most notable accomplishments of their tenure so far, even as it deflated the theories they had encouraged for years.

From The Wall Street Journal

“There is a relatively stable front line, and breaking through it is extremely difficult,” Budanov said, adding that neither side currently has the capacity for a breakthrough.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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