noun
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same as wreck
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the act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked; ruin or destruction
Etymology
Origin of wreckage
Explanation
What's left behind after a destructive accident or disaster is called wreckage. The day after tornadoes sweep through a town, its inhabitants might search the wreckage of their houses for mementoes and valuables. When a bomb goes off, a city floods, or a house burns down, mangled pieces of buildings and cars often remain — wreckage that's a reminder of the catastrophe. After the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, the wreckage sat on the ocean floor for decades before divers found it. Wreckage comes from wreck, originally "goods washed ashore after a shipwreck."
Vocabulary lists containing wreckage
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -age
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 12–June 18, 2021
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Compound Fracture
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The visionary Montezemolo saw immense potential lying in the wreckage of Ferrari’s road-car business.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
Photos released by state media showed the wreckage of a winged craft scattered across the ground alongside grey and blue components that allegedly included cameras.
From Barron's • Apr. 6, 2026
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s pugnacious parliament speaker, continued his now-daily trolling of the Trump administration, posting a picture depicting the smoking wreckage of what appeared to be two planes and two helicopters.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 5, 2026
The fire truck is on its side, surrounded by debris, wreckage and warped metal.
From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026
The path through the wreckage to the Red Cross tents was narrow, and then it was gone.
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
