shipwreck
Americannoun
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shipwrecks
plural
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the destruction or loss of a ship, as by sinking.
-
the remains of a wrecked ship.
-
destruction or ruin.
the shipwreck of one's hopes.
verb (used with object)
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shipwrecks,
present (3rd person singular)
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shipwrecked,
past participle, past
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shipwrecking
present participle
-
to cause to suffer shipwreck.
-
to destroy; ruin.
verb (used without object)
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shipwrecks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shipwrecked,
past participle, past
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shipwrecking
present participle
noun
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the partial or total destruction of a ship at sea
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a wrecked ship or part of such a ship
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ruin or destruction
the shipwreck of all my hopes
verb
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to wreck or destroy (a ship)
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to bring to ruin or destruction
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shipwrecksimple
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shipwreckssimple
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have shipwreckedperfect
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has shipwreckedperfect
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am shipwreckingprogressive
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are shipwreckingprogressive
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is shipwreckingprogressive
-
have been shipwreckingperfect progressive
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has been shipwreckingperfect progressive
Past
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shipwreckedsimple
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had shipwreckedperfect
-
was shipwreckingprogressive
-
were shipwreckingprogressive
-
had been shipwreckingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shipwreck
before 1100; Middle English shipwrech remains of a shipwreck; see ship 1, wreck; replacing Old English scipwræc ( see wrack)
Explanation
A shipwreck is the damaged remains of a large sea-going vessel that washes to shore or sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Historians are interested in old shipwrecks, which reveal details of who was onboard or what was being transported when the ship was badly damaged. You can use the word for the act of the ship's destruction as well as the wreckage left behind: "The shipwreck occurred when the Titanic struck an iceberg." Storms, accidents, war, and sabotage can all lead to shipwrecks. An earlier maritime word with the same meaning was "ship-breaking."
Vocabulary lists containing shipwreck
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:
Experts have cracked a four-letter code to open an ancient padlock from a shipwreck off the Welsh coast using modern scanning technology.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Three masts removed from a bomb-laden shipwreck in the Thames Estuary have been successfully taken to a maritime museum.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Eighty-two people survived the shipwreck, all Ethiopian nationals, according to the updated toll.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
Waters has encountered complete artifacts while working with shipwreck collections, where intact objects are more common.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
I wondered if it would be too dramatic to bend down to kiss the grass like a sailor kisses the shore after surviving a shipwreck.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Associate Professor Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University, Antalya, has worked along this coastline for decades excavating ancient shipwrecks.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
It called it "one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded" on the route.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
He had survived bandito ambushes and cutthroat plots, shipwrecks and crash-landings and high-sea duels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Of course, not all shipwrecks find themselves in such relatively hospitable conditions—the Titanic, for instance, is slowly being gobbled up by iron-eating bacteria.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
These inventions include side-scan sonar, which proved invaluable when locating shipwrecks, advanced underwater picture-taking equipment, and equally advanced methods of mapping a wreck site.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
His Ultron avatar sports the long beard of a fisherman shipwrecked by a hard life.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026
International law requires belligerents in a war to assist sailors wounded or shipwrecked in battle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
The survivors may have been subject to protections provided to shipwrecked sailors, or to those given to troops who have been rendered unable to continue fighting.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
On Friday, Italy's coastguard said it was searching for the survivors of a shipwrecked vessel carrying about 30 people in the search and a rescue area of Malta, some 50 miles southeast of Lampedusa.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
The morning after they landed, Aeneas with his friend, the faithful Achates, left his wretched shipwrecked followers to try to find out what part of the world they were in.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
“Maybe fate brought you here for a reason,” Blackthorne is told shortly after shipwrecking in Japan.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
Instead he continued: “But I ain’t the one to bear a grudge, Duval, although you did come mighty near shipwrecking my faith in human natur’.
From The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune by John Henry Goldfrap
And of the risks I ran of utterly shipwrecking my character and good name and from which Thou didst rescue me.
From Santa Teresa an Appreciation: with some of the best passages of the Saint's Writings by Alexander Whyte
He was in danger of shipwrecking on that fatal sunken reef to American character, popularity.
From Se-quo-yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V.41 by Unknown
I’ve had a pretty good hardening already, what with knocking on the head, drowning, shipwrecking, starving, and walking off my legs.”
From Yussuf the Guide The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor by John Schonberg
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