Breakthrough
adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An advance through and past enemy lines.
- 2 making an important discovery wordnet
- 3 Any major progress; such as a great innovation or discovery that overcomes a significant obstacle.
"Albert Einstein is credited with making some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern physics."
- 4 a penetration of a barrier such as an enemy's defense wordnet
- 5 The penetration of the opposition's defence.
"But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved."
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- 6 a productive insight wordnet
- 7 The penetration of a separating wall or the remaining distance to an adjacent hollow (a crosscut in mining) or between two parts of a tunnel build from both ends; knockthrough.
- 8 The emergence or one or more symptoms of a condition despite medication or other medical treatment. attributive, sometimes
"She was on two antiepileptics for five years but then had a breakthrough seizure."
- 1 Characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle. not-comparable
"a breakthrough technological advance"
- 2 Involving the contraction of a disease by a person with a decreased susceptibility, such as a person who has been vaccinated to help prevent that disease. not-comparable
"Breakthrough infections (urine infections that develop in children on antibiotics) can occasionally occur, and if they do, different preventative antibiotics can be given or sometimes surgery to fix the leaky valve can be undertaken."
Example
More examples"Representatives made a major breakthrough in the trade talks."
Etymology
From break + through. Compare German Durchbruch and Dutch doorbraak (“breakthrough”, literally “through-break”).
Related phrases
More for "breakthrough"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.