fracture

fracture — noun

1. a damaged area where a hard material, such as a bone or piece of wood, has split

1.nounB2
Definition

a damaged area where a hard material, such as a bone or piece of wood, has split or cracked

Example

The X-ray showed a small fracture in Arjun's wrist after he fell off his bicycle.

Dahlia, a geologist, examined the fracture in the granite cliff where rainwater had seeped through.

Common collocations
  • hairline fracture
  • stress fracture
  • compound fracture
  • hip fracture
  • skull fracture
Synonyms
  • crack

    narrower; describes a thin opening on the surface without complete separation

  • break

    more general; can refer to any separation into pieces

  • split

    suggests separation along a natural line or grain

fracture — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Crack describes a narrow opening on the surface without complete separation — a cup can crack but still hold liquid, whereas a fracture implies deeper structural damage. Break is the most general word, covering any separation into pieces, from a dropped plate to a snapped rope. Split suggests separation along a natural line or grain, like splitting a piece of wood with an axe. Chip refers to a small piece breaking off the edge of a hard object, leaving a notch behind. For example: 'The doctor confirmed that the bone was fractured, not just cracked.' vs 'He chipped a tooth on an ice cube but did not fracture it.' vs 'She split the log along its grain with a single blow.'

crack ↗break ↗split ↗chip ↗

Common collocations

Adverbs

Phrases

  • hairline fracture
  • stress fracture
  • compound fracture

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Fracture comes from the Latin verb frangere, meaning 'to break'. Its past participle, fractus, gave rise to the English noun fracture in the early 1400s and the verb a century later. The same Latin root also appears in fragment, fragile, and fraction — all words that carry the core idea of something being broken or broken off.