- (of a news story) currently developing or having happened recently and being released for publication or airing, as on television or radio, in print, or on the internet:Our network aims to be your trusted source for breaking news, local weather, and sports.
- coming into being suddenly: When I awoke, it was breaking day over the eastern horizon.
- changing or collapsing suddenly:This is a photograph of a breaking wave in the subantarctic waters of the Southern Ocean.
- the change of a pure vowel to a diphthong, especially in certain environments, as, in Old English, the change of a vowel to a diphthong under the influence of a following consonant or combination of consonants, as the change of -a- to -ea- and of -e- to -eo- before preconsonantal r or l and before h, as in earm “arm” developed from arm, and eorthe “earth” from erthe.
- (in Old English, Old Norse, etc) the change of a vowel into a diphthong
