groundbreaking

[ ground-brey-king ]

/ ˈgraʊndˌbreɪ kɪŋ /

Save This Word!

See synonyms for groundbreaking on Thesaurus.com

noun

the act or ceremony of breaking ground for a new construction project.

adjective

of or relating to such a ceremony.

originating or pioneering a new endeavor, field of inquiry, or the like: Pasteur's groundbreaking work in bacteriology.

QUIZ

CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?

There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?

Question 1 of 7

Which sentence is correct?

His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of groundbreaking

First recorded in 1905–10; ground¹ + break + -ing¹, -ing²

Words nearby groundbreaking

ground ball, ground bass, ground beam, ground beetle, groundbreaker, groundbreaking, ground bug, ground cable, ground cedar, ground cherry, ground cloth

How to use groundbreaking in a sentence

While Nobel prizes are often granted for work done decades ago—that’s typically how long it takes for a finding to prove to be truly groundbreaking for the field—Doudna and Charpentier made these contributions just a few years ago.
Two women just won the Nobel Prize for their work on the gene-editing technique CRISPR|Claire Maldarelli|October 7, 2020|Popular-Science
Doudna’s groundbreaking paper on CRISPR was published in 2012, and Oakes immediately saw the potential, so he joined her lab at Berkeley.
Scribe Therapeutics launches a platform for engineering CRISPR-based therapeutics|Darrell Etherington|October 6, 2020|TechCrunch
Adding a time element to data content may not seem groundbreaking, but it can be overlooked when hunting for takeaways.
How to create compelling content based on existing data|Claire Cole|September 22, 2020|Search Engine Watch
Meanwhile, China is spending billions of dollars of its own and publishing groundbreaking experiments headed by its leading scientific light, the quantum physicist Pan Jianwei.
IBM plans a huge leap in superfast quantum computing by 2023|rhhackettfortune|September 15, 2020|Fortune

Pat Brown is a long-time Stanford biomedical researcher who’s done groundbreaking work in genetics.
The Future of Meat (Ep. 367 Rebroadcast)|Stephen J. Dubner|August 29, 2019|Freakonomics
It marked a groundbreaking moment in how the country viewed Jews, especially Jewish women.
Why Was Bess Myerson the First and Last Jewish Miss America?|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
She is groundbreaking on the problem of methane leaks in natural-gas fracking, an exception that swallows the rule.
Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’ Will Change Nothing|Michael Signer|November 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The ABC comedy, while still entertaining, stopped being groundbreaking long ago, and serves largely as comedy comfort food.
Stop Hating on ‘Modern Family’ (But Also Stop Giving It Emmys)|Jason Lynch|October 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This is number four on my list, and it is politically groundbreaking.
Wake Up, Republicans: Hillary Clinton’s Machine Can Crush You|Myra Adams|September 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The lab has amassed over 60,000 DNA samples and pioneered some groundbreaking scientific advances.
America's Anti-Poaching Private Eyes|Caitlin Dickson|September 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This was a time of many innovations and groundbreaking scientific theories.
The Civilization of Illiteracy|Mihai Nadin

British Dictionary definitions for groundbreaking

ground-breaking

adjective

innovativea ground-breaking novel

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012