noun
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same as wreck
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the act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked; ruin or destruction
Etymology
Origin of wreckage
Explanation
What's left behind after a destructive accident or disaster is called wreckage. The day after tornadoes sweep through a town, its inhabitants might search the wreckage of their houses for mementoes and valuables. When a bomb goes off, a city floods, or a house burns down, mangled pieces of buildings and cars often remain — wreckage that's a reminder of the catastrophe. After the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, the wreckage sat on the ocean floor for decades before divers found it. Wreckage comes from wreck, originally "goods washed ashore after a shipwreck."
Vocabulary lists containing wreckage
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -age
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 12–June 18, 2021
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Compound Fracture
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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.
Schumacher’s Thomas Bros. guide was found in the wreckage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
A barely conscious Millroy was stuck in his car for over a minute before he was pulled from the burning wreckage by Dutchman Hartog after he immediately stopped his car to help him.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
In “Scattered Steel” these authors track the metal salvaged from the approximately 1.8 million tons of wreckage at Ground Zero.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
AFP footage showed the overturned bus and its wreckage scattered along the roadside.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
They saw some sort of wreckage on the reef—but were spotted by men in a canoe and dove for cover.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Definitions 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.
