What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Breakdown vs Divide - What's the difference?

breakdown | divide |

As nouns the difference between breakdown and divide

is that breakdown is a failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed while divide is a thing that divides.

As a verb divide is

to split or separate (something) into two or more parts.

breakdown

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed
    • We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
  • A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability
    • After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
  • Listing, division or categorization in great detail
    • ''Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
  • (chemistry) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements.
  • A musical technique, by where the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, and can vary in heaviness depending on the genre.
  • * 1992 , En Vogue, My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) (song)
    • And now it's time for a breakdown !
  • (sports) A loss of organization (of the parts of a system).
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.}}
  • (US, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the blacks of the southern United States.
  • (US, dated) Any crude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.
  • * (rfdate) New Eng. Tales
    • Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with.
  • (US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.
    • Foggy Mountain 'Breakdown'
  • * 1893 , (Mark Twain) "The Californian's Tale", in (1906)
    • Towards nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good old fashioned breakdown . A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet - these were the instruments.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-book, ???, title=Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, page=102,
    • books.google.com/books?isbn=1592403778, author=Stephen Davis, year=2008, passage=Izzy lays down some big chords while Slash plays the song's banjo breakdown of a theme.}}
  • *
  • *

    • Synonyms

    * (musical technique) degradation

    Derived terms

    * breakdown lorry / breakdown truck * breakdown point * nervous breakdown

    See also

    * break it down

    divide

    English

    Verb

    (divid)
  • To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
    • a wall divides''' two houses; a stream '''divides the towns
  • * Bible, 1 Kings iii. 25
    • Divide the living child in two.
  • To share (something) by dividing it.
  • * Spenser
    • true justice unto people to divide
  • (arithmetic) To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).
  • (arithmetic) To be a divisor of.
  • To separate into two or more parts.
  • (biology) Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.}}
  • To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
  • * Bible, Mark iii. 24
    • If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
  • * Prescott
    • Every family became now divided within itself.
  • (obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
  • * 1605 , , I. ii. 107:
    • love cools, friendship / falls off, brothers divide .
  • (obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
  • * 1608 , , I. vi. 87:
    • Make good this ostentation, and you shall / Divide in all with us.
  • To vote, as in the British Parliament, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes.
  • * Gibbon
    • The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals.
  • To mark divisions on; to graduate.
    • to divide a sextant
  • (music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.
    • (Spenser)

    Synonyms

    * (split into two or more parts) cut up, disunite, partition, split, split up * (share by dividing) divvy up, divide up, share, share out * (separate into two or more parts) separate, shear, split, split up

    Antonyms

    * (split into two or more parts) combine, merge, unify, unite * (calculate times of multiplication) multiply

    Related terms

    * dividend * division * divisor *

    See also

    * quotient * separate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thing that divides.
    • Stay on your side of the divide , please.
  • An act of dividing.
    • The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
  • A distancing between two people or things.
    • There is a great divide between us.
  • (geography) A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
    • If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.
    ----