wrecked
verb
Form of wreck , past tense of wreck.
Simple meaning
To destroy violently.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rehktIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹɛkt
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
past tense of wreck
To destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.
past tense of wreck
To be involved in a wreck; to be damaged or destroyed.
past tense of wreck
To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.
past tense of wrecktransitiveAustralia
To dismantle wrecked vehicles or other objects, to reclaim any useful parts.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.
Used this way, wrecked is a reasonably familiar word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It lands hard, so it overstates anything mild. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Harsh or blunt
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Wrecked is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone who demolishes or dismantles buildings as a job.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The remaining parts of something that has been wrecked.
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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.