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Inroads vs Breakthrough - What's the difference?

inroads | breakthrough |

As nouns the difference between inroads and breakthrough

is that inroads is while breakthrough is (military) an advance through and past enemy lines.

As an adjective breakthrough is

characterized by major progress or overcoming some obstacle.

inroads

English

Noun

(head)
  • The beginnings of progress; penetration of a problem; initial steps.
    • Three weeks into it, I am finally beginning to make inroads on this project.

    Usage notes

    * Almost always plural.

    Anagrams

    * * *

    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