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nervous breakdown

noun

Simple meaning

A severe or incapacitating emotional disorder.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nurvuhsbraykdown

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnɝvəsbˈɹeɪkdaʊn

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A severe or incapacitating emotional disorder

  2. An attack of a psychological disorder such as depression or anxiety so severe that it prevents a person from continuing to function normally

  3. philippines

    A psychological disorder usually characterized by panic attacks and aggressiveness, related to the Hispanic ataque de nervios.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: A severe or incapacitating emotional disorder

Used this way, nervous breakdown is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Medicine/healthcare
  • Science
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.