phrasal verb · neutral
break a record
UK/breɪk ə ˈrɛkɔːd/US/breɪk ə ˈrɛkərd/break a RE·cord
speakingtask1task2
to do something faster or better than anyone has before, so the best previous result is exceeded
Examples
“She trained hard and finally broke a national record.”
“At the Olympics he broke a long-standing record.”
“Many athletes aim to break a record in their careers.”
Band 8 sentence
“In the final heat she dug deep and broke the national record by nearly a second.”
Collocations
- break a world/national/previous record
- break the record by (time/points)
Word family
break records verb phraserecord nounrecord-breaking adjective
Common mistakes
make a record→break a record
do a record→break a record
Say it for a higher band
5make a record→6beat a record→7+break a record
Synonyms
set a record
beat a record
Easily confused
set a record
“She set a new world record in the marathon.”
beat a record
“He beat the school record by half a second.”
Related words
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In break …
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