breaking points

noun

plural of breaking point
as in crises
a time or state of affairs requiring prompt or decisive action tensions between the two nations had risen to the breaking point

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for breaking points
  1. crises
  2. crossroads
  3. boiling points
  4. heads
  5. flash points
Noun
  • Washington — Senate Democrats demanded answers Wednesday about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, following reports of food shortages, broken plumbing and mental health crises during the aircraft carrier's record-setting deployment.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 13 Aug. 2026
  • Companies must ask what successors aren't ready for and what's being done *now* to prepare them, ensuring a strong leadership bench and avoiding costly crises.
    — Roberta Matuson, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of crises
Noun
  • Rapid technology evolution is unavoidable, and every day will bring a new tool and another crossroads.
    — Dani Mariano, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026
  • One year and one week later, the Cincinnati Reds selected Gausman off waivers as his career reached a crossroads.
    — Patrick Mooney, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of crossroads
Noun
  • The intense temperature and pressure of the impact heated the moon's crust and mantle so much that many of the volatile elements present (volatiles are elements with low boiling points), including potassium, evaporated and escaped into space.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Thermodynamics drives selective recovery The researchers hypothesized that FJH combined with chlorine gas could exploit differences in Gibbs free energy and boiling points to selectively remove non-REE elements from magnet waste.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 29 Sep. 2025
Definition of boiling points
Noun
  • For now, his dream to referee at a men’s World Cup must wait until 2030 at the earliest when the tournament heads to Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
    — Aleks Klosok, CNN Money, 12 Aug. 2026
  • Trump frequently posts official government announcements exclusively on Truth Social, including military attacks and ceasefires, the hiring and firing of agency heads, and major domestic policies, the lawsuit said.
    — Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of heads
Noun
  • And it’s been one of the country’s most visible flash points in the race to build new critical-mineral mines.
    — Justin Worland, Time, 4 Aug. 2026
  • Kashmir remains one of the world’s most contentious geopolitical flash points.
    — Peter Dziedzic, The Conversation, 30 July 2026
Definition of flash points
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

breaking point
breaking points
breaking the law
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Breaking points.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/breaking%20points. Accessed 13 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of salvo

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Words of the Week - Aug. 14

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
fridge-magnet-letters
Drop a Letter Quiz August 2026 Drop a letter from a word to make a totally diffe...
See All