breakthrough

/ˌbreɪkˈθru/

/ˈbreɪkθru/

Other forms: breakthroughs

An amazing discovery or a huge amount of progress can be called a breakthrough. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 was a breakthrough for modern medicine.

A personal breakthrough might be overcoming your fear of spiders once and for all. A bigger breakthrough, one that affects many people, is the invention of indoor plumbing. There's a sense of suddenness and drama associated with most breakthroughs. The word started out with a military meaning of literally "breaking through a barrier" in 1918. By the 1930s, it came to have the second meaning of "abrupt solution."

Definitions of breakthrough

1. noun

   making an important discovery
   type of:

   discovery, find, uncovering

   the act of discovering something
2. noun

   a productive insight
   synonyms: discovery, find

   type of:

   brainstorm, brainwave, insight

   the clear (and often sudden) understanding of a complex situation
3. noun

   a penetration of a barrier such as an enemy's defense
   type of:

   incursion, penetration

   an attack that penetrates into enemy territory