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Discovery vs Breakthrough - What's the difference?

discovery | breakthrough |

As nouns the difference between discovery and breakthrough

is that discovery is something discovered while breakthrough is an advance through and past enemy lines.

As an adjective breakthrough is

characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.

discovery

English

Noun

  • Something discovered.
    • This latest discovery should eventually lead to much better treatments for disease.
  • (uncountable) The discovering of new things.
    • The purpose of the voyage was discovery .
    automatic discovery of RSS feeds by a Web browser
  • (legal, uncountable) A pre-trial phase in which evidence is gathered.
    • The prosecution moved to suppress certain items turned up during discovery .
  • (legal, uncountable) Materials revealed to the opposing party during the pre-trial phase in which evidence is gathered.
    • The defense argued that the plaintiff's discovery was inadequate.

    Related terms

    * discover verb * discoverer noun * e-discovery

    breakthrough

    English

    Alternative forms

    * breakthru

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.
    • a breakthrough technological advance

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (military) An advance through and past enemy lines.
  • Any major progress; such as a great innovation or discovery that overcomes a significant obstacle.
    • .
  • (sports) The penetration of the opposition defence
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Jon Smith , title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.}}

    Derived terms

    * breakthrough pain