wreckage

[rek-ij]

See more synonyms for wreckage on Thesaurus.com

noun

act of wrecking; state of being wrecked.
remains or fragments of something that has been wrecked: They searched the wreckage for survivors.

Origin of wreckage

First recorded in 1830–40; wreck + -age

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for wreckage

debris, rubble, wreck, remains, ruins, remnants, shambles, havoc, flotsam

Examples from the Web for wreckage

Contemporary Examples of wreckage

The wreckage lies no more than around 100 feet down in the Java Sea.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?
Clive Irving
January 4, 2015
Search teams find dozens of people and jet debris floating in the Java Sea, as the airline confirms the wreckage is from QZ8501.
Wreckage, Bodies of AirAsia Crash Found
Lennox Samuels
December 30, 2014
The wreckage of the Airbus A320 has been located in relatively shallow water.
Who Will Get AsiaAir 8501’s Black Boxes?
Clive Irving
December 30, 2014
Pakistani troops even fought off militants attempting to reach the wreckage of drones that had crashed.
Obama’s Deadly Informants: The Drone Spotters of Pakistan
Umar Farooq, Syed Fakhar Kakakhel
November 12, 2014
But what actually determines the amount of wreckage left floating on the surface?
MH370 Debris Is Lost Forever, Can the Plane Be Found Without It?
Clive Irving
September 7, 2014

Historical Examples of wreckage

So surely from out of the wreckage and passion a new woman will arise.
The Truth About Woman
C. Gasquoine Hartley
He would get his friends together, and they would plan to save what they could from the wreckage.
Changing Winds
St. John G. Ervine
The cable that ran from it was entangled with the wreckage of the derrick, but it had not been cut.
Two Thousand Miles Below
Charles Willard Diffin
He set to work to gather up the wreckage of the tent and outfit.
Louisiana Lou
William West Winter
And the wreckage of their size-change mechanisms was strewn among them.
The World Beyond
Raymond King Cummings

British Dictionary definitions for wreckage

wreckage

noun

same as wreck (def. 6)
the act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked; ruin or destruction

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

Word Origin and History for wreckage

1837, from wreck + -age.