fracture

American  

[frak-cher] / ˈfræk tʃər /

noun

• fractures
  plural

1. the breaking of a bone, cartilage, or the like, or the resulting condition.

2. the act of breaking; state of being broken.

3. a break, breach, or split.

4. the characteristic manner of breaking.

   a material of unpredictable fracture.

5. the characteristic appearance of a broken surface, as of a mineral.

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verb (used with object)

• fractures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fractured,
  past participle,  past
• fracturing
  present participle

1. to cause or to suffer a fracture in (a bone, etc.).

2. to break or crack.

   Synonyms:

   split, rupture, splinter, shatter, smash

3. Slang. to amuse highly or cause to laugh heartily; delight.

   The new comic really fractured the audience.

verb (used without object)

• fractures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fractured,
  past participle,  past
• fracturing
  present participle

1. to become fractured; break.

   a mineral that does not fracture easily.

fracture British  

/ ˈfræktʃə /

noun

1. the act of breaking or the state of being broken

2. 1. the breaking or cracking of a bone or the tearing of a cartilage

   2. the resulting condition See also Colles' fracture comminuted fracture compound fracture greenstick fracture impacted

3. a division, split, or breach

4. mineralogy

   1. the characteristic appearance of the surface of a freshly broken mineral or rock

   2. the way in which a mineral or rock naturally breaks

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verb

1. to break or cause to break; split

2. to break or crack (a bone) or (of a bone) to become broken or cracked

3. to tear (a cartilage) or (of a cartilage) to become torn

fracture Scientific  

/ frăk′chər /

1. A break or rupture in bone tissue.

2. ◆ A comminuted fracture results in more than two fragments.

3. ◆ Although most fractures are caused by a direct blow or sudden, twisting force, stress fractures result from repetitive physical activity.

4. ◆ In an incomplete fracture, the fracture line does not completely traverse the bone.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fracturer
  noun
• refracture
  verb
• fracturable
  adjective
• fractural
  adjective
• postfracture
  adjective
• refracturable
  adjective
• unfractured
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fractures
  plural

Participles

• fracturing
  present
• fractured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fracture
  simple
• fractures
  simple
• have fractured
  perfect
• has fractured
  perfect
• am fracturing
  progressive
• are fracturing
  progressive
• is fracturing
  progressive
• have been fracturing
  perfect progressive
• has been fracturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• fractured
  simple
• had fractured
  perfect
• was fracturing
  progressive
• were fracturing
  progressive
• had been fracturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fracture
  simple
• will have fractured
  perfect
• will be fracturing
  progressive
• will have been fracturing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of fracture

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin frāctūra “a breach, cleft, fracture,” from frāct(us) “broken” (past participle of frangere “to break, shatter”; see also break) + -ūra -ure

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Explanation

Think of something hard breaking in a crisp, snapping manner, and you've just imagined a fracture. The word is most often applied to a broken bone, but it can used to describe any sharp, sudden break of something solid. The Latin frāctus means "broken," and its descendant fracture can mean any break, though it's most often associated with a hard — maybe even brittle — material, such as a bone, a rock, or the earth’s crust. When something softer is split we say it is torn. For example, when we say someone broke an arm, we are referring to the bone, not the muscle; we'd say the muscle is torn. When someone funny "breaks us up," we might say "you fracture me!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fracture fractures fractured fracturing

One concern is the risk of a compression fracture, which is when a vertebra collapses, usually as a result of osteoporosis, according to Banner Health’s Fisher.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

Is it a rift, kerfuffle, brawl or hairline fracture?

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

The attribution to Samuel is based on clues including the location of the tomb, the sumptuousness of the garment, the age of the deceased and an old fracture.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

Scotty died before the fracture had completely healed.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026

Will sensed it all and felt the atoms of the metal linking each to each across the fracture, forming new crystals again, strengthening and straightening themselves in the invisible lattice as the join came good.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

The crater itself measures roughly three kilometers across and is surrounded by a much larger, 20-kilometer-wide region of circular faults, which are fractures in the rock where movement has occurred.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

Others have not lost their fighting spirit, like Ahmed Ali Mahmoud who is smiling and animated, despite multiple fractures.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

That might make you more vulnerable to foot fractures, according to a 2023 analysis of high-stack running shoes with carbon-fiber plates published in Sports Medicine, with Tenforde as the lead author.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

Older adults are also more likely to suffer fractures, while younger children are more likely to sustain head and neck injuries.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

For a moment she thought she saw its mouth stretch into a smile thick with smoke, fractures of light breaking through.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

It’s a body of nostalgic American hopefulness that, to a cynic, may seem hopelessly out of touch with the reality of our fractured times.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026

Impacts could have fractured the objects and exposed fresh material, potentially changing their surface compositions and colors.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026

East Carolina coach Blake Harrell later confirmed Coleman Jr had an X-ray at half-time which showed he fractured his fibula during the incident.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

Nathan Fielder crafts a fractured, innovative film about the infamous Theranos fraudster before and during her time in federal prison.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Mom, Abbey, and I pushed together to slide the bone- fish skiff off the trailer, since Dad’s hands were still tender from the fractured bones.

From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen

That raised fresh concerns about the appeal of U.S. assets in a fracturing world — and one where yield is no longer hard to find.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026

The process of hydraulic fracturing ekes out oil from older wells, and involves cracking the bedrock several thousand feet below the seafloor by injecting chemical fluids with intense pressure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

It didn’t explicitly say investigators believe a bird strike led to the engine fan blade fracturing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

They also revealed dislocations moving from the layer interfaces into the surrounding CoAl layers, helping explain how the material could deform without quickly fracturing.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

But Dasch didn't want to deal with them, so Burger was once again left with the job of alleviating the anger and distrust that was fracturing their group.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

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