Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

breakneck

/ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.51 in modern English

Syllables: break-neck
IPA: /ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/

21

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather.

adv

Dangerously fast.

noun

A fall that breaks the neck.

noun

A dangerous steep place from which one could fall and be injured.

Example Sentences

"breakneck pace"
"He came running around the corner at a breakneck pace and couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting the fruit stand."
"The line to Dunières conists of a series of breakneck descents almost invariably ended by a violent curve and followed immediately by a panting climb, on which the engine barked thunderously but failed unhappily to maintain its booked speed of 13 m.p.h."
"The use of machine learning in this field is hardly new, but the breakneck pace at which it is improving is worrying, Lund says: “With the advent of ChatGPT, the future is bleak.”"
"I ran breakneck another hundred yards."

Etymology

From break + neck.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/
British English: /ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/

Inflected Forms

more breakneck (comparative) most breakneck (superlative) breaknecks (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

breakbone

Questions

How do you pronounce breakneck?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/.
What does breakneck mean?: Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather.
Where does breakneck come from?: From break + neck.

How to pronounce breakneck

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “breakneck”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “breakneck”.
Repeat and practice — Say “breakneck” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.