BREAKTHROUGH Definition & Meaning

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breakthrough

[ breyk-throo ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a military movement or advance all the way through and beyond an enemy's frontline defense.
an act or instance of removing or surpassing an obstruction or restriction; the overcoming of a stalemate:
The president reported a breakthrough in the treaty negotiations.
any significant or sudden advance, development, achievement, or increase, as in scientific knowledge or diplomacy, that removes a barrier to progress:
The jet engine was a major breakthrough in air transport.
Medicine/Medical. an infection, disease, disorder, or condition that occurs in an individual despite their having received a vaccine, medication, or treatment:
Covid breakthroughs are usually less severe than infections in unvaccinated people, indicating that the vaccine is still doing its job of combating the virus.

adjective

constituting a breakthrough: Critics called it a breakthrough film.
Their products are engineered with breakthrough technology.
Critics called it a breakthrough film.
Medicine/Medical. relating to or being an infection, disease, disorder, or condition that occurs as a breakthrough: She experienced disabling breakthrough pain despite the high dose of painkillers she was taking.
In the original vaccine trial, 89% of breakthrough infections were with a particular family of virus strains.
She experienced disabling breakthrough pain despite the high dose of painkillers she was taking.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of breakthrough¹

First recorded in 1915–20; noun use of verb phrase break through

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Top Gun was a breakthrough for Kilmer, who played Iceman, the rival to Cruise's hotshot Maverick at the US Navy's academy for elite fighter pilots.

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It criticised the administration's "bragging and arrogance" and "its desire to declare 'huge breakthroughs' when the first steps have barely been taken".

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Fishburne was only 14 when he began filming his breakthrough performance, the first of his collaborations with director Francis Ford Coppola, which include “The Cotton Club” and “Megalopolis.”

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There have been no signs of an imminent breakthrough or an end to the Israel closure of crossings into Gaza.

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Kilmer's real career breakthrough came the following year, when he appeared in Top Gun, one of the biggest box office hits of the 1980s.

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