Breakpoint
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A point in a program at which operation may be interrupted during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated.
- 2 A location referred to when issuing watches, warnings, or advisories for specific areas.
- 3 The point where surface water waves are breaking in, e.g., oceans or lakes.
- 4 A viewport width at which a web page is programmed to adjust the properties (such as position, size, or visibility) of certain elements within the page.
"If a device's screen width is equal to, or less than, the screen width defined at the breakpoint, it will have the related CSS applied to it. You sometimes want to set breakpoints to match particular device screen widths, but I have found that what is most important is simply that the layout remains usable as it gets smaller."
- 1 To flag with a breakpoint. transitive
"If the microprogrammer wishes to continue execution at a breakpointed location, it is desirable to execute the breakpointed microinstruction, replace the microinstruction with a branch microinstruction to restore the breakpoint, and continue microinstruction execution."
Example
More examples"If a device's screen width is equal to, or less than, the screen width defined at the breakpoint, it will have the related CSS applied to it. You sometimes want to set breakpoints to match particular device screen widths, but I have found that what is most important is simply that the layout remains usable as it gets smaller."
Etymology
From break + point.
Related phrases
More for "breakpoint"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.