fractured
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: verb/1
All four verbs describe something coming apart, but they differ in how the damage looks and sounds. Break is the most general: anything that separates into pieces, whether a cup, a bone, or a promise, can break. Crack describes a narrow line of damage on the surface — a cracked windshield is still in one piece, but it is weakened. Snap is sudden and sharp, often with an audible sound, and usually involves a long object like a twig, a rope, or a pencil. Fracture is more specific and formal: it is the usual medical term for a bone injury, and in physical contexts it describes hard, brittle materials breaking in a way that leaves the pieces close together rather than flying apart. For example: a doctor says 'You have fractured your wrist,' not 'You have cracked your wrist'; but you would say 'The dry twig snapped when I stepped on it,' not 'The dry twig fractured.'
Common collocations
Etymology
Fractured comes from Latin fractus, meaning 'broken,' which is the past participle of the verb frangere (to break). Frangere also gave English fragment, fragile, and fraction. The word fracture entered English in the 1400s from Old French, originally used in medicine for broken bones. The adjective fractured appeared later, first describing physical breaks and then extending to groups and language in the 1900s.