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Breakdown vs Summary - What's the difference?

breakdown | summary |

As nouns the difference between breakdown and summary

is that breakdown is a failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed while summary is an abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.

As an adjective summary is

concise, brief or presented in a condensed form.

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

    summary

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Concise, brief or presented in a condensed form
    • A summary review is in the appendix.
  • Performed speedily and without formal ceremony.
    • They used summary executions to break the resistance of the people.
  • (legal) Performed by cutting the procedures of a standard and fair trial.
    • Summary justice is bad justice.

    Noun

    (wikipedia summary) (summaries)
  • An abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.

    • Synonyms

    * upshot, bottom line, short form (slang)

    Derived terms

    * executive summary * management summary