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smash

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Collide or strike violently and suddenly.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

smash
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsmæʃ

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.

verb

  1. Break into pieces, as by striking or knocking over

  2. Break suddenly into pieces, as from a violent blow

  3. transitive

    To break (something brittle) violently.

  4. Collide or strike violently and suddenly

    “The motorcycle smashed into the guard rail.”

  5. Hit violently

    “She smashed her car against the guard rail.”

  6. transitive

    To hit extremely hard.

noun

  1. The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

  2. colloquial

    Something very successful or popular (as music, food, fashion, etc).

  3. A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.

  4. A mashed foodstuff.

  5. ukirelandcolloquial

    A traffic collision.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Break into pieces, as by striking or knocking over

Used this way, smash is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use smash

  • “She smashed her car against the guard rail.”verb
  • “The motorcycle smashed into the guard rail.”verb
  • “The police smashed the drug ring after they were tipped off.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

smash hitssmash throughoffice smashcar smashoverhead smash

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • smashingnounInflected form

    The act of breaking something into small pieces.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • smash upverbCompound term

    Damage or destroy as if by violence.

  • smash hitnounCompound term

    An unusually successful hit with widespread popularity and huge sales (especially a movie or play or recording or novel).

  • atom smashernounCompound term

    A scientific instrument that increases the kinetic energy of charged particles.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: sound of a violent impact

knock

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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.